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turnip definition

tur·nip (tʉr′nip)

noun

    1. a biennial plant (Brassica rapa) of the crucifer family, with edible, hairy leaves and a roundish, light-colored, fleshy root used as a vegetable
    2. rutabaga
  2. the root of either of these plants
  3. Slang a pocket watch

Etymology: earlier turnep, prob. < turn or Fr tour, in the sense of “turned, round” + ME nepe < OE næp, turnip < L napus

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

turnip Synonyms

turnip

n.

domestic turnip, rutabaga, Swedish turnip, turnip cabbage, kohlrabi, Teltow turnip, wild turnip, Indian turnip; see also vegetable.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

turnip Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • sow: Turnips Begin to harvest and continue sowing turnips until the end of the month.

Adjective modifier

  • Swedish: The turnips look pretty well all the way down the valley; but I see very few, except swedish turnips.

Modifies a noun

  • mosaic: The genetic control of resistance to turnip mosaic virus in Brassica.

Noun used with modifier

  • stubble: We've received an ' occupational license ' to move ewes across a road to a fresh field of stubble turnips.
turnip usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

turnip quotes

My aim all along has been (in Ezra Pound's term) the most drastic desuetization of Scottish life and letters, and, inparticular, thede-Tibetanizationofthe Highlands and Islands, and getting rid of the whole gang of high mucky-mucks, famous fatheads, old wives of both sexes, stuffed shirts, hollow men with headpieces stuffed with straw, bird-wits, lookers-under-beds, trained seals, creeping Jesuses, Scots Wha Ha'evers, village idiots, policemen, leaders of white-mouse factions and noted connoisseurs of bread and butter, glorified gangsters, and what 'Billy' Phelps calls Medlar Novelists (the medlar being a fruit that becomes rotten before it is ripe),Commercial Calvinists, makers of 'noises like a turnip', and all the touts and toadies and lickspittles o the English Ascendancy, and their infernal women-folk, and all their skunkoil skulduggery.

-Grieve

turnip quotes (more)

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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"turnip." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 4 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/turnip>

APA Style

turnip. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 4th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/turnip

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