currant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various deciduous, spineless shrubs of the genus Ribes, native chiefly to the Northern Hemisphere and having flowers in racemes and edible, variously colored berries.
2. n. The fruits of any of these plants, used for jams, jellies, desserts, or beverages.
3. n. A small seedless raisin of the Mediterranean region, used chiefly in baking.
4. n. Any of several other plants or their fruit.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An obsolete spelling of current and courant.
2. n. A very small kind of raisin or dried grape imported from the Levant, chiefly from Zante and Cephalonia, and used in cookery.
3. n. The small round fruit (a berry) of several species of Ribes, natural order Saxifragaceæ; the plant producing this fruit: so called because the berries resemble in size the small grapes from the Levant. The red currant is R. rubrum, of which the white currant is a variety; the wild black currant, R. floridum; the buffalo or Missouri currant, R. aureum; the flowering currant, R. sanguineum, the berries of which are insipid, but not, as popularly supposed, poisonous. The red currant is sharply but pleasantly acid, and is much used in the form of jelly and jam. The white variety is milder and less common. The black currant is slightly musky and bitter, but makes an agreeable jam.
4. n. In Australia and Tasmania, a species of Leucopogon, especially
5. n. A name for various melastomaceous species of tropical America, bearing edible berries, especially of the genera

Wiktionary

1. n. A small dried grape, usually the Black Corinth grape, rarely more than 4mm diameter when dried.
2. n. The fruit of various shrubs of the genus Ribes, either white, black or red.
3. n. A shrub bearing such fruit.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A small kind of seedless raisin, imported from the Levant, chiefly from Zante and Cephalonia; -- used in cookery.
2. n. The acid fruit or berry of the Ribes rubrum or common red currant, or of its variety, the white currant.
3. n. (Bot.) A shrub or bush of several species of the genus Ribes (a genus also including the gooseberry); esp., the Ribes rubrum.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of several tart red or black berries used primarily for jellies and jams
2. n. any of various deciduous shrubs of the genus Ribes bearing currants
3. n. small dried seedless raisin grown in the Mediterranean region and California; used in cooking