| / English Dictionary |
PLUM
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A highly desirable position or assignment
Example:
a political plum
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("plum" is a kind of...):
berth; billet; office; place; position; post; situation; spot (a job in an organization)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Any of numerous varieties of small to medium-sized round or oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single pit
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("plum" is a kind of...):
edible fruit (edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh)
drupe; stone fruit (fleshy indehiscent fruit with a single seed: e.g. almond; peach; plum; cherry; elderberry; olive; jujube)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plum"):
damson; damson plum (dark purple plum of the damson tree)
greengage; greengage plum (sweet green or greenish-yellow variety of plum)
beach plum (small dark purple fruit used especially in jams and pies)
sloe (small sour dark purple fruit of especially the Allegheny plum bush)
Victoria plum (a large red plum served as dessert)
Holonyms ("plum" is a part of...):
plum; plum tree (any of several trees producing edible oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single hard stone)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Any of several trees producing edible oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single hard stone
Synonyms:
plum; plum tree
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("plum" is a kind of...):
fruit tree (tree bearing edible fruit)
Meronyms (parts of "plum"):
plum (any of numerous varieties of small to medium-sized round or oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single pit)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plum"):
wild plum; wild plum tree (an uncultivated plum tree or shrub)
common plum; Prunus domestica (any of various widely distributed plums grown in the cooler temperate areas)
bullace; Prunus insititia (small wild or half-domesticated Eurasian plum bearing small ovoid fruit in clusters)
big-tree plum; Prunus mexicana (small tree of southwestern United States having purplish-red fruit sometimes cultivated as an ornamental for its large leaves)
Canada plum; Prunus nigra (small tree native to northeastern North America having oblong orange-red fruit)
cherry plum; myrobalan; myrobalan plum; Prunus cerasifera (small Asiatic tree bearing edible red or yellow fruit)
Japanese plum; Prunus salicina (small tree of China and Japan bearing large yellow to red plums usually somewhat inferior to European plums in flavor)
Pacific plum; Prunus subcordata; Sierra plum (shrub of the Pacific coast of the United States bearing small red insipid fruit)
Holonyms ("plum" is a member of...):
genus Prunus; Prunus (a genus of shrubs and trees of the family Rosaceae that is widely distributed in temperate regions)
II. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Completely; used as intensifiers
Example:
I'm plumb (or plum) tuckered out
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Domain usage:
argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular (a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves))
Sense 2
Meaning:
Exactly
Example:
fell plumb in the middle of the puddle
Synonyms:
plum; plumb
Classified under:
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Context examples:
As they sank into the darkness I felt a strange chill, and a lonely feeling came over me; but a cloak was thrown over my shoulders, and a rug across my knees, and the driver said in excellent German:—"The night is chill, mein Herr, and my master the Count bade me take all care of you. There is a flask of slivovitz (the plum brandy of the country) underneath the seat, if you should require it."
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
They were still under the white plum tree and their faces were touching except for a pale thin ray of moonlight between.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
"Perhaps you know that lady." Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree. Tom and Daisy stared, with that peculiarly unreal feeling that accompanies the recognition of a hitherto ghostly celebrity of the movies.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
With enchanting murmurs Daisy admired this aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky, admired the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils and the frothy odor of hawthorn and plum blossoms and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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