fruit

/ˈfrüt/

Middle English fruit, frute, froyte, fructe, borrowed from Anglo-French fruit, frut (also continental Old French), going back to Latin frūctus "pleasurable possession (of something), right to enjoy the profits (of something), useful products of nature, fruit, profit, advantage," from frūg-, base of fruor, fruī "to enjoy the produce or proceeds of, derive advantage from, be blessed with, derive pleasure from" (probably going back to *frūu̯ōr < *frūi̯ōr < *frūgi̯ōr, from a dialectal Indo-European verbal base *b{sup}h{/sup}ruHg- "enjoy, use") + -tus, suffix of action nouns

noun

  1. a product of plant growth (such as grain, vegetables, or cotton)

  2. the usually edible reproductive body of a seed plant; especially : one having a sweet pulp associated with the seed

  3. a succulent plant part (such as the petioles of a rhubarb plant) used chiefly in a dessert or sweet course

the fruits of the field

verb

  1. to bear fruit

  2. to cause to bear fruit

noun

  1. any of a family (Pteropodidae of the suborder Megachiroptera) of often large tropical and subtropical Old World bats that feed on ripe fruit, pollen, and nectar and that usually use visual navigation rather than echolocation —called also flying fox