quince

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A western Asian shrub or tree (Cydonia oblonga) having white flowers and hard applelike fruit.
2. n. The aromatic, many-seeded fruit of this plant, edible only when cooked.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The fruit of the tree Pyrus Cydonia. (See def. 2.) It is pear-shaped, or in one variety apple-shaped, large, sometimes weighing a pound, of a golden-yellow color when ripe, and very fragrant. The quince was known to the ancients, and it has been argued that the golden apples of the Hesperides were quinces. While raw it is hard and austere, but it becomes edible by boiling or baking, and is largely used for jelly, preserves, and marmalade (see etymology of marmalade), and for flavoring sauces of other fruits. The seeds of the common quince are used in medicine and the arts, on account of their highly mucilaginous coat. In decoction they afford a demulcent application, and they are sometimes used in eye-lotions. Their mucilage is employed in making bandoline and in marbling books. See bandoline.
2. n. The fruit-tree Pyrus Cydonia, sometimes classed as Cydonia vulgaris, the latter genus being based (insufficiently) on the many-seeded cells of the fruit. The quince is a small hardy tree, usually dwarfed, but sometimes reaching 15 or 20 feet in height, having crooked spreading branches which produce the flowers singly at their ends. Besides bearing fruit, the quince often serves as a stock for dwarfing the pear. The local origin of the quince is not clearly known, but it occurs spontaneously from northwestern India westward through the Mediterranean basin. The name quince applies also to any of the plants formerly referred to Cydonia. See the phrases below.
3. n. Scrofula.
4. n. Same as quinze.

Wiktionary

1. n. The pear-shaped fruit of a small tree of the rose family, Cydonia oblonga.
2. n. The deciduous tree bearing such fruit, native to Asia.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The fruit of a shrub (Cydonia vulgaris) belonging to the same tribe as the apple. It somewhat resembles an apple, but differs in having many seeds in each carpel. It has hard flesh of high flavor, but very acid, and is largely used for marmalade, jelly, and preserves.
2. n. (Bot.) a quince tree or shrub.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. aromatic acid-tasting pear-shaped fruit used in preserves
2. n. small Asian tree with pinkish flowers and pear-shaped fruit; widely cultivated