water chestnut Hear it!

water chestnut definition

water chestnut

  1. ☆
    1. a Chinese sedge (Eleocharis dulcis) with erect, cylindrical leaves, growing in dense clumps in water
    2. the large, button-shaped, submerged tubers of this plant, used in Chinese cooking
  2. a floating aquatic weed (Trapa natans) of the water-chestnut family, with black, hard, horned fruit, the seed of which is sometimes eaten
water-chestnut definition

water-chestnut (-c̸hes′nət)

adjective

designating a family (Trapaceae, order Myrtales) of floating, aquatic dicotyledonous plants

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.