cherries

Variant of cherry

noun pl. cherries

  1. a small, fleshy fruit containing a smooth, hard pit and ranging from yellow to very dark red, including sweet, sour, and duke cherries
  2. any of various prunus trees that bear this fruit
  3. the wood of such a tree
  4. the bright-red color of certain cherries
  5. Slang
    1. ☆ the hymen
    2. virginity

Origin: ME cheri < Anglo-Fr cherise (taken as pl.) < OFr cerise < VL *ceresia < Gr kerasion, cherry < kerasos, cherry tree < ? IE base *ker-; derived by the ancients from Cerasus, city on the Black Sea: the city's name is itself from the cherries grown in the area

adjective

  1. bright-red
  2. made of cherry wood
  3. made with cherries
  4. having a flavor like that of cherries
  5. Slang new or like new: a used car in cherry condition
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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