Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various tropical African shrubs or trees of the genus Coffea, especially C. arabica or C. canephora, widely cultivated in the tropics for their seeds that are dried, roasted, and ground to prepare a stimulating aromatic drink.
  • noun The beanlike seeds of this plant, two of which are found in each fruit.
  • noun The beverage prepared from the seeds of this plant.
  • noun A serving of such a beverage.
  • noun A moderate brown to dark brown or dark grayish brown.
  • noun An informal social gathering at which coffee and other refreshments are served.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The berry of trees belonging to the genus Coffea, natural order Rubiaceæ.
  • noun A drink made from the seeds of the coffee-tree, by infusion or decoction.
  • noun A light meal resembling afternoon tea, at which coffee is served.
  • noun The last course of a dinner, consisting of black coffee.

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

  • noun The “beans” or “berries” (pyrenes) obtained from the drupes of a small evergreen tree of the genus Coffea, growing in Abyssinia, Arabia, Persia, and other warm regions of Asia and Africa, and also in tropical America.
  • noun The coffee tree.
  • noun The beverage made by decoction of the roasted and ground berry of the coffee tree.
  • noun a cup of coffee{3}, especially one served in a restaurant.
  • noun a social gathering at which coffee is served, with optional other foods or refreshments.
  • noun a color ranging from medium brown to dark brown.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a species of scale insect (Lecanium coffæa), often very injurious to the coffee tree.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Musang.

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

  • noun A beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.
  • noun The seeds of the plant used to make coffee, misnamed ‘beans’ due to their shape.
  • noun A tropical plant of the genus Coffea.
  • noun this sense) A pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.
  • noun The end of the meal—where coffee is usually served.
  • adjective Of a pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.

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

  • noun any of several small trees and shrubs native to the tropical Old World yielding coffee beans
  • noun a beverage consisting of an infusion of ground coffee beans
  • noun a medium brown to dark-brown color
  • noun a seed of the coffee tree; ground to make coffee

Etymologies

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

[Alteration (influenced by Italian caffè, from Turkish) of Ottoman Turkish qahveh, from Arabic qahwa; see qhw in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian caffè, from Turkish kahve, from Arabic قهوة (qahwa, "coffee"). Some Ethiopians claim a derivation from Kaffa, an ancient province of Ethiopia where coffee is said to have originated, but this etymology is highly improbable as it fails to explain the initial shift to the Arabic ‘qahwa’. At the same time, qahwa refers only to coffee in liquid form. When it is dry, either as beans or ground, Arabs call coffee بن (bunn). That word comes from ቡና (buna), the Amharic word for coffee.

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Examples

Comments

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  • you can't even bring in a cup of coffee

    December 11, 2006

  • The person upon whom one coughs. --Mensa word list winner 2006

    March 2, 2007

  • Captured at Yorktown, "16 bags coffee, 2,500 lb."

    October 29, 2007

  • when you drink too much coughee, you gonna have too much pee.

    April 28, 2008

  • Me (putting seedling in ground: There. That should grow well in this spot.

    Lady (looking on): What is it?

    Me: Coffee. A coffee bush.

    Lady: Oh, really. What's that used for?

    November 16, 2008

  • "In the libretto of J.S. Bach's 'Coffee Cantata' (1732) a young bourgeois German woman threatens her father:

    No lover shall woo me

    Unless I have his pledge

    Written in the marriage settlement,

    That he will allow me

    To drink coffee when I please."

    —Antony Wild, Coffee: A Dark History (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004), 146

    October 9, 2010

  • Interesting comment can be found on salutiferous.

    January 3, 2011

  • Usage/historical note can be found on tobacco.

    December 6, 2016