Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An annual plant (Spinacia oleracea) native to southwest Asia, widely cultivated for its succulent edible leaves.
  • noun The leaves of this plant, eaten as a vegetable.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A chenopodiaceous garden vegetable of the genus Spinacia, producing thick succulent leaves, which, when boiled and seasoned, form a pleasant and wholesome, though not highly flavored dish.
  • noun One of several other plants affording a dish like spinach. See phrases below.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A common pot herb (Spinacia oleracea) belonging to the Goosefoot family.
  • noun See Garden orache, under Orache.
  • noun (Bot.) a coarse herb (Tetragonia expansa), a poor substitute for spinach.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A particular edible plant, Spinacia oleracea.
  • noun Any of numerous plants which are used for greens in the same way spinach is.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun southwestern Asian plant widely cultivated for its succulent edible dark green leaves
  • noun dark green leaves; eaten cooked or raw in salads

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French espinache, from Medieval Latin spināchium, from Arabic ’isfānāḫ, from Persian espenāj, espenākh.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Via Arabic اسفاناخ (isfānākh), from Persian اسپناخ (ispanākh).

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Examples

Comments

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  • Popular food among Public Relations executives and Popeye.

    December 3, 2008

  • Etymology: Middle French espinache, espinage, from Old Spanish espinaca, from Arabic isbnakh, isfinaakh, from Persian aspanakh.

    August 31, 2009

  • I love this definition from the Century: "1. A chenopodiaceous garden vegetable of the genus Spinacia, producing thick succulent leaves, which, when boiled and seasoned, form a pleasant and wholesome, though not highly flavored dish."

    June 30, 2011

  • CSP always struck me as a meat-and-potatoes man.

    June 30, 2011

  • I'm not sure whether CSP worked on this one. I just went to the Peirce Edition Project's site and saw spin, spindle-curve, and Spinozism, but no spinach.

    July 1, 2011

  • If they're so succulent, why do they require seasoning and boiling??

    Heads need to roll over this one.

    July 1, 2011