pear

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A widely cultivated tree (Pyrus communis) in the rose family, having glossy leaves, white flowers grouped in a corymb, and edible fruit.
2. n. The fruit of this tree, spherical at the base and tapering toward the stalk.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The fruit of the pear-tree.
2. n. The tree Pyruts communis. The wild tree is common over temperate Europe and Asia, often scrubby, but under favorable conditions becoming, as under culture, a handsome tree of good height, inclining to a pyramidal form. Though close to the apple botanically, it differs in its more upright habit, smooth shining leaves, pure-white flowers with purple stamens, the granular texture of the wild fruit, the juicy melting quality of the fine varieties, and the form of the pome, which tapers toward the base and has no depression around the stem. The tree is long-lived, specimens existing which are two or three hundred years old. The pear was known in a number of varieties in the days of Pliny, but its excellence is of much later date. In recent times it has received great attention, its culture being pushed with special zeal in France. It is a highly successful fruit in the United States. The varieties of pear are numbered by thousands, but only a few are really important. The Seckel is an American variety—the fruit small, but unsurpassed in quality. The Bartlett, known in Europe, where it originated, as Williams's bon Chrétien, is also universally popular. Pomologists place some others, as the beurre d' Anjou, as high as these or higher. Dwarf pears (that is, those grafted or budded on quince-stocks) are more convenient for gardens: standard pears (that is, those grafted or budded on seedling-pear stocks) are commonly more profitable. In some regions, as England and northern France, a liquor is made from the juice of the fruit. (See perry) Pear-wood has a compact fine grain, and is highly prized for cabinet- and mill-work, etc., and second only to boxwood for wood-engraving and turnery.
3. n. A pear-shaped pearl, as for the pendant of an ear-ring. Evelyn, Mundus Muliebris
4. An obsolete form of peer.

Wiktionary

1. n. An edible fruit produced by the pear tree, similar to an apple but elongated towards the stem.
2. n. A type of fruit tree (Pyrus communis).
3. n. The wood of the pear tree.
4. n. choke pear (a torture device)

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) The fleshy pome, or fruit, of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus communis), cultivated in many varieties in temperate climates; also, the tree which bears this fruit. See Pear family, below.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. Old World tree having sweet gritty-textured juicy fruit; widely cultivated in many varieties
2. n. sweet juicy gritty-textured fruit available in many varieties