Potato definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (38)

American Heritage Dictionary (3)

noun A South American plant (Solanum tuberosum) widely cultivated for its starchy edible tubers.
noun A tuber of this plant.
noun A sweet potato. See Regional Note at possum.

Century Dictionary (32)

The sweet potato. See below. [This was the original application of the name, and it is in this sense that the word is generally to be understood when used by English writers down to the middle of the seventeenth century.] This Plant (which is called of some Sisarum Peruvianum, or Skyrrets of Peru) is generally of us called Potatus or Potato's. It hath long rough flexible branches trailing upon the ground, like unto those of Pompions, whereupon are set greene three cornered leaves very like those of the wilde Cucumber…. Clusius calleth it Batata, Camotes, Amotes, and Ignames: in English, Potatoes, Potatus, and Potades. Gerarde, Herball (1636), Of Potato's. Candied potatoes are Athenians' meat. Marston, Scourge of Villanie, iii.
One of the esculent tubers of the common plant Solanum tuberosum, or the plant itself. The potato is a native of the Andes, particularly in Chili and Peru, but in the variant boreale it reaches north to New Mexico. It was probably first introduced into Europe from the region of Quito by the Spaniards, in the earlier part of the fifteenth century. In 1586 it was brought to England from Virginia, where, however, it was probably derived from a Spanish source. Its progress in Europe was slow, its culture, even in Ireland, not becoming general till the middle of the eighteenth century; but it is now a staple food in most temperate climates. The fruit of the potato-plant is a worthless green berry; its useful product is the underground tubers, which in the wild plant are small, but are much enlarged under cultivation. These tubers, which are of a roundish or oblong shape, sometimes flattish, are set with “eyes,” really the axils of rudimentary leaves, containing ordinarily several buds, and it is by means of these that the plant is usually propagated. The food-value of the potato lies mostly in starch, of which it contains from 15 to 20 or 25 per cent. It is deflcient in albuminoids and phosphates. Besides their ordinary food-use. potatoes are a source of manufactured starch; and spirits are now distilled from them to a considerable extent, chiefly in Germany. The tops (in America called vines, in England halms, in Scotland shaws) contain, together with the fruit, a poisonous alkaloid, solanin, absent in the tubers except when exposed to the sun. The varieties of the potato are numerous. The crop is often seriously injured by the potato-beetle and the potato-rot. To distinguish it from the yellow sweet potato, this plant is sometimes called white potato or (from its being one of the chief food-staples in Ireland) Irish potato. Virginian Potato hath many hollow flexible branches trailing upon the ground, three square, uneven, knotted or kneed in sundry places at certaine distances: from the which knots cometh forth one great leaf made of divers leaves…. Because it hath not only the shape and proportion of Potato's, but also the pleasant taste and vertues of the same, we may call it in English Potatoes of America or Virginia. Gerarde, Herball (1636), Of Potatoes of Virginia. They dygge also owte of the ground certeyne rootes growynge of theim selues, whiche they caule Botatas. … The skyn is sumwhat towgher than eyther of nauies or mussheroms, and of earthy coloure: But the inner meate thereof is verye whyte. Peter Martyr (tr. in Eden's First Books on America, ed. [Arber, p. 131).
Canada potato the Jerusalem artichoke.

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That a certain kind of potato, a certain kind of drug, a sativa-indica-cannabis cross has something to say about us. — Michael Pollan gives a plant's-eye view
The steak tasted of tenderizer, but the potato was the best he had ever eaten By the time Qwilleran drove home, the fog had burned off in the valley, but halfway up Hawk's Nest Drive it closed in like a white blanket, and he reduced his speed. — Braun_lilian_Jackson_13_The_Cat_Who_Moved_a_Mountain
Everyone can agree without discussion that a potato is an edible tuber. — Estellas Revenge - A 'zine about books!
Taking advantage of the potato is a delicious way to eat with pennies on the dollar. — TreeHugger
He eats chips and wedges - not 'potato' - if he knows it's potato, he wont eat it. — Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions

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