Definitions

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

  • noun A variety of plum (Prunus domestica) having yellowish-green skin and sweet flesh.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A kind of plum of medium size, roundish shape, greenish flesh, and delicious flavor. It is called in France Reine Claude, after the queen of Francis I. See gage.

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

  • noun A plum with greenish-yellow flesh and skin.

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

  • noun sweet green or greenish-yellow variety of plum

Etymologies

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

[green + gage, after Sir William Gage, (1656?–1727), English botanist.]

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Examples

  • These trees also differ in their manner of growth: "the greengage is a very short-jointed, slow-growing tree, of spreading and rather dwarfish habit;" whilst its offspring, the imperial gage, "grows freely and rises rapidly, and has long dark shoots."

    The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. I. Charles Darwin 1845

  • And once the cards had been taken down from their strings and the tree lights well and truly entangled for next year, it was always a particular joy in the first days of January to wander up the garden path through the 'orchard' as we euphemistically called it, to take a look at a patch of earth under a stubborn old greengage tree.

    Aconite Acolyte Peter Ashley 2008

  • This has been greengage week, with mine ripening in the garden and a spate of greengage-related dishes on restaurant menus, including a very tempting almond tart at Bayswater's Le Café Anglais.

    Nigel Slater's mushrooms with quinoa and chard, and baked greengages recipes 2010

  • I noticed a chimney rising just above the treetops of a spinney of ash, maple, hazel, elder, blackthorn, ivy and bramble, and what was left of a cottage orchard of walnut, greengage and apple.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • I noticed a chimney rising just above the treetops of a spinney of ash, maple, hazel, elder, blackthorn, ivy and bramble, and what was left of a cottage orchard of walnut, greengage and apple.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • And I want a greengage plum tree of my own in the worst way.

    Growing Food Lindy 2008

  • You will think me mad, but I bought myself a bare root dwarf (?) self-fertile, greengage plum tree, and a really giant fiberglass pot (Costco-$20, not even ugly), and there is now a plum tree on the porch.

    Plum Crazy Lindy 2008

  • You will think me mad, but I bought myself a bare root dwarf (?) self-fertile, greengage plum tree, and a really giant fiberglass pot (Costco-$20, not even ugly), and there is now a plum tree on the porch.

    Toast: Lindy 2008

  • He sometimes ventures farther afield, having gone to Puerto Rico for mangosteens, Italy for blood oranges and France for greengage plums, but most of his work is done in California.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • You will think me mad, but I bought myself a bare root dwarf (?) self-fertile, greengage plum tree, and a really giant fiberglass pot (Costco-$20, not even ugly), and there is now a plum tree on the porch.

    Growing Food Lindy 2008

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