fig

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Ficus, especially F. carica, native to the Mediterranean region and widely cultivated for its edible multiple fruit.
2. n. The sweet, hollow, pear-shaped, multiple fruit of this plant, having numerous tiny seedlike fruits.
3. n. Any of several plants bearing similar fruit.
4. n. The fruit of such a plant.
5. n. A trivial or contemptible amount: not worth a fig; didn't care a fig.
6. n. Dress; array: in full fig.
7. n. Physical condition; shape: in fine fig.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To move suddenly or quickly; rove about.
2. n. The common name for species of the genus Ficus, and for their fruit. The common fig, F. Carica, is a native of the Mediterranean region; it has been cultivated from a very remote date, and is now found in most warm temperate countries. It is a small tree, with large, rough, deciduous leaves, and a pyriform fruit, which varies much in size, color, and flavor, and of which two crops are usually borne each season. This fruit consists of a hollow, fleshy receptacle filled with a multitude of minute nutlets or so-called seeds, the ripened ovaries of the pistillate flowers which covered the interior. When green the fig has a milky, acrid juice, which becomes sweet and mucilaginous at maturity. The Turkey or Smyrna figs of commerce, which are the most esteemed, are large and pulpy. A superior quality of these are known as eleme figs (Turkish ellémé, hand-picked). What are called Greek figs are small and dry. The number of cultivated varieties is large. Figs are used in medicine as a mild laxative. The wild fig, or caprifig, is the staminate and sterile form of the same species. Of other species, F. Sycamorus, Pharaoh's fig, or the sycamore fig, is a large tree of Egypt, the fruit of which is eaten by the Arabs. Its light, durable wood was used by the Egyptians as the material for their mummy-cases. F. religiosa, the sacred fig of India, is also known as the pippul - or bo-tree (which see). F. pedunculata is the wild or red fig of southern Florida and the West Indies, a tree sometimes 40 feet high, and spreading by aërial roots, with a very small, globose fruit. The black fig of Jamaica is F. laurifolia and F. crassinervia. In Australia, F. macrophylla is known as the Moreton Bay fig, a noble tree with a broadly buttressed trunk. F. rubiginosa, the Port Jackson fig, is a tree with rooting branches, similar to the banian.
3. n. A name given to various plants having a fruit somewhat resembling the fig.
4. n. A florideous alga, Callithamnion floridulum.
5. n. The fig-tree.
6. n. A raisin.
7. n. In farriery, an excrescence on the frog of a horse's foot following a bruise.
8. n. A contemptuous gesture, pretended to be of Spanish origin, which consisted in thrusting out the thumb between the first and second fingers. Also called fig of Spain and fico.
9. n. As a colloquial standard of value or consideration, the merest trifle; the least bit: as, your opinion is not worth a fig; I don't care a fig for it.
10. To insult with ficos, or contemptuous motions of the fingers. See fig, n., 7, and fico.
11. To put into the head of, as something worthless or useless.
12. n. Dress; equipment: used chiefly in the phrase in full fig, in full or official dress.
13. n. Hence Condition; state of preparation or readiness: as, the horse is in good fig for the race.
14. To dress or deck: as, to fig one out.
15. To trick or hocus, as a horse, so as to make the animal appear lively or spirited, as by putting a piece of ginger into the anus.
16. A common abbreviation of figure.
17. n. In soap-making, same as figging.
18. n. An abbreviation of figurative or of figuratively.

Wiktionary

1. n. A fruit-bearing tree or shrub of the genus Ficus that is native mainly to the tropics.
2. n. The fruit of the fig tree, pear-shaped and containing many small seeds.
3. v. intransitive To move suddenly or quickly; rove about.
4. n. Abbreviation of figure (diagram or illustration).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A small fruit tree (Ficus Carica) with large leaves, known from the remotest antiquity. It was probably native from Syria westward to the Canary Islands.
2. n. The fruit of a fig tree, which is of round or oblong shape, and of various colors.
3. n. U.S. A small piece of tobacco.
4. n. The value of a fig, practically nothing; a fico; -- used in scorn or contempt.
5. v. obsolete To insult with a fico, or contemptuous motion. See fico.
6. v. obsolete To put into the head of, as something useless o� contemptible.
7. n. colloq. Figure; dress; array.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. fleshy sweet pear-shaped yellowish or purple multiple fruit eaten fresh or preserved or dried
2. n. a diagram or picture illustrating textual material
3. n. Mediterranean tree widely cultivated for its edible fruit
4. n. a Libyan terrorist group organized in 1995 and aligned with al-Qaeda; seeks to radicalize the Libyan government; attempted to assassinate Qaddafi