Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various evergreen, usually spiny shrubs or trees of the genus Citrus and other genera in the family Rutaceae, such as the grapefruit, lemon, and orange, native to South and Southeast Asia and widely cultivated for their juicy edible fruits with a leathery aromatic rind.
- noun The fruit of any of these plants.
- adjective Of or relating to any of the citrus plants or their fruits.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A citron-tree; in general, any tree or fruit of the genus Citrus: as, citrus-culture; the citrus trade.
- noun [capitalized] A genus of small trees, natural order Rutaceæ, with pinnate but apparently simple coriaceous and punctate leaves upon usually winged petioles.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A genus of trees including the orange, lemon, lime, tangerine, citron, grapefruit, etc., originally natives of southern Asia.
- noun (Bot.) any tree belonging to the genus Citrus, having leathery evergreen leaves and bearing a soft pulpy fruit covered by a thick skin; -- called also
citrus tree . - noun (Bot.) the fruit of a tree belonging to the genus Citrus, having a thick shiny skin and a soft, sweet to tart pulp.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of several
shrubs ortrees of thefamily Rutaceae . - noun The
fruit of suchplants , generallyspherical ,oblate , orprolate , consisting of an outerglandular skin calledzest , an inner white skin, and generally between 8 and 16sectors filled withpulp consisting ofcells with one end attached to the inner skin. Citrus fruits includeorange ,grapefruit ,lemon ,lime , andcitron . - adjective Of, or relating to citrus plants or fruit.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of numerous fruits of the genus Citrus having thick rind and juicy pulp; grown in warm regions
- noun any of numerous tropical usually thorny evergreen trees of the genus Citrus having leathery evergreen leaves and widely cultivated for their juicy edible fruits having leathery aromatic rinds
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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I've also got one pot of strawberry; its dormant at the moment; We're too hot in Sydney for many pom fruit to take; citrus is our best bet.
Today's Garden 2009
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But the floral nectar of some plant species also includes small quantities of substances known to be toxic, such as caffeine and nicotine … Caffeine is found at concentration levels of 11-17. 5 milligrams per liter, mostly in citrus flowers.
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Lemon, lime and orange all get top marks from me when citrus is in season.
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Adding zest from fresh citrus is one of the easiest and best ways to brighten up the flavor of a dish, or to infuse an extra burst into some baked goods.
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Adding zest from fresh citrus is one of the easiest and best ways to brighten up the flavor of a dish, or to infuse an extra burst into some baked goods.
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Sharon: I always laugh when I remember that citrus is technically a winter fruit in the States because I could not agree with you more.
Lemon Zucchini Bread Laura 2008
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Locate these spots on your graph, mark them with buoys, then probe them with diving crankbaits in citrus shad or firetiger.
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That's a heavy wad, even for an heir to the Ben Hill Griffin citrus fortune.
March 2006 2006
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Snapper filet marinated in citrus, frijoles negres, and washed it down with a nice bottle of saw-vee-non-blawnk.
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Snapper filet marinated in citrus, frijoles negres, and washed it down with a nice bottle of saw-vee-non-blawnk.
The Sudden Curve: 2004
chained_bear commented on the word citrus
"Perhaps it was Catherine's Aragonese background that led to the use of lip-smacking Seville organe juice in red-meat stews and pies and the novelty of pairing fish and poultry with lemons, for by 1534 Henry's household was using enough in its cooking to purchase an orange strainer. Oranges were an expensive taste: at the banquet to celebrate Anne Boleyn's coronation at the Company of Leather Sellers in 1533, there was only one citrus fruit."
--Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 96
January 9, 2017