Medlar meaning

mĕd'lər
A deciduous European tree (Mespilus germanica) in the rose family, having white flowers and edible apple-shaped fruit.
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The fruit of this plant, eaten fresh or made into preserves.
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A small tree (Mespilus germanica) of the rose family, growing in Europe and Asia.
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Its small, brown, applelike fruit, hard and bitter when ripe and eaten or used in preserves when partly decayed.
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A tree of the genus Mespilus.
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The fruit of the tree. The fruit is something like a small apple, and it is not eaten until it has begun to decay, or more properly, to blet.
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Origin of medlar

  • Middle English medler from Old French meslier, medler from mesle, medle fruit of the medlar from Late Latin mespila from Greek mespilē
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • Via Middle English from Old French medler, from medle (“medlar fruit"), from Latin mespila, from Ancient Greek μέσπιλον (mespilon)
    From Wiktionary

Medlar Sentence Examples

  • Of native fruits the misple (Vangueria infausta), miscalled the wild medlar, is of excellent flavour.

  • The astringency renders the fruit somewhat unpalatable, but after it has been subjected to the action of frost, or has become partially rotted or "bletted" like a medlar, its flavour is improved.

  • Of these the apple and the pear are now very inferior in Corfu; the others thrive well and are accompanied by all the fruit trees known in southern Europe, with addition of the Japanese medlar (or loquat), and, in some spots, of the banana.

  • Of fruit trees the apple, pear, plum, cherry, medlar, pomegranate, fig, quince, as well as two kinds of vine, grow wild; oranges, sweet and bitter, and other Aurantiaceae thrive well in gardens and plantations.

  • The fruit of the pear is of a higher colour and smaller on the quince stock than on the wild pear; still more so on the medlar.

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Words near medlar in the Dictionary