Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A bulbous plant (Allium cepa) cultivated worldwide as a vegetable.
- noun The rounded edible bulb of this plant, composed of fleshy, tight, concentric leaf bases having a pungent odor and taste.
- noun Any of several other plants in the genus Allium.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To affect by or with onions: To flavor with onions.
- To rub with onion; produce by the presence of onion, as tears.
- noun An esculent plant, Allium Cepa (see
Allium ), especially its bulbous root, the part chiefly used as food.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A liliaceous plant of the genus Allium (
Allium cepa ), having a strong-flavored bulb and long hollow leaves; also, its bulbous root, much used as an article of food. The name is often extended to other species of the genus. - noun The flavor of an onion{1}.
- noun (Zoöl.) the grenadier.
- noun (Zoöl.) a dipterous insect whose larva feeds upon the onion; especially,
Anthomyia ceparum andOrtalis flexa . - noun (Bot.) See
Cibol . - noun (Bot.) a name given to several species of the genus Allium.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
monocotyledonous plant of genusAllium allied togarlic , used as vegetable and spice. - noun The
bulb of such a plant. - noun uncountable The genus as a whole.
- noun A
ball . - noun colloquial A person from
Bermuda or of Bermudian descent.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the bulb of an onion plant
- noun bulbous plant having hollow leaves cultivated worldwide for its rounded edible bulb
- noun an aromatic flavorful vegetable
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The Latin for a pearl and onion is _unio_, and the pun refers to Cleopatra giving her _pearl_ (or _onion_) to Antony in a draught of wine, or, as some say, drinking it herself in toasting her lover.
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook Ebenezer Cobham Brewer 1853
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Commonly known as nigella, this spice is also found under the name "onion seeds."
The Seattle Times 2011
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Inquiring into their history, I surprisingly found the origin of the term onion dome has eluded historical record, as has the date and origin of the design.
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Little Missouri the great Missouri is upwards of a mile in width, tho immediately at the entrance of the former it is not more than 200 yards wide and so shallow that the canoes passed it with seting poles. at the distance of nine miles passed the mouth of a creek on the Stard. side which we called onion creek from the quantity of wild onions which grow in the plains on it's borders.
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis 1791
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Heat about 4 Tbs olive oil in a deep, heavy, lidded pot over medium-high heat until hot and sizzling when a piece of onion is dropped in.
Jamie Schler: Ossobuco: A Taste of Italy Jamie Schler 2010
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Heat about 4 Tbs olive oil in a deep, heavy, lidded pot over medium-high heat until hot and sizzling when a piece of onion is dropped in.
Jamie Schler: Ossobuco: A Taste of Italy Jamie Schler 2010
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Whether eaten hot or cold, the combination of sweet spices and bitter-sweet onion is as comforting as can be.
Yotam Ottolenghi's mejadra recipe Yotam Ottolenghi 2010
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Heat about 4 Tbs olive oil in a deep, heavy, lidded pot over medium-high heat until hot and sizzling when a piece of onion is dropped in.
Jamie Schler: Ossobuco: A Taste of Italy Jamie Schler 2010
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"It's like you're peeling back the layers of an onion," is how Lee, of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, describes a mysterious disease's damage to the tot's eye.
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Cook, stirring frequently, for about 8 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
yarb commented on the word onion
"Know, also, the celebrated formulary of the onion. It is a great panacea of many distempers. Roasted under hot ash, after the embers have died, and blended with honey and rue, the electuary breaks tough phlegm, palliates gripes, acts as a laxative in the day and an astringent by night, purges the head of noises and clears the blood. The same vegetable, bruised and scrambled in syrup of the ripe red pomegranate, and mixed with laudanum, that is sublimed by slow fire, is right good for horror dreams of the young. The onion is an opener, and if cooked in jackets of corn-flour dough, and eaten with sea-dust and pepper to taste, it promotes the courses, dissolves the tumours, clears the complexion, and softens chapped hands. It is the king of medicaments, my dear."
- G.V. Desani, All About H. Hatterr, (1945), pp. 212-213 of NYRB 2008 edition.
January 1, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word onion
usage/historical note in comment on vegetables.
November 27, 2017