rice

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A cereal grass (Oryza sativa) that is cultivated extensively in warm climates for its edible grain.
2. n. The starchy grain of this plant, used as a staple food throughout the world.
3. v. To sieve (food) to the consistency of rice.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The grain of the rice-plant. It forms a larger part of human food than the product of any other one plant, being often an almost exclusive diet in India, China, and the Malayan islands, and abundantly used elsewhere. Over 75 per cent. of its substance consists of starchy matter, but it is deficient in albuminoids, the flesh-forming material, and is thus best adapted for use in warm climates. It is commonly prepared by boiling; in warm countries it is much employed in curries. Rice-flour, rice-glue, rice-starch, rice-sugar, and rice-water are made from it; the sake of the Japanese is brewed from rice, and one kind of true arrack is distilled from it.
2. n. The rice-plant, Oryza sativa. It is a member of the grass family (see Oryza), native in India, also in northern Australia; extensively cultivated in India, China, Malaysia, Brazil, the southern United States, and somewhat in Italy and Spain. It has numerous natural and cultivated varieties, and ranges in height from 1 to 6 feet. It requires for ripening a temperature of from sixty to eighty degrees, and in general can be grown only on irrigable land (but see mountain-rice). Rice is one of the most prolific of all crops. It was introduced into South Carolina about 1700—it is said by chance. The finest quality is produced in the United States, South Carolina and Georgia leading in amount; but the production has considerably declined since the civil war.
3. n. Rice produced in India.
4. n. Another spelling of rise.
5. n. A collapsible hexagonal reel upon which a hank of yarn is placed for winding on a bobbin.

Wiktionary

1. n. Cereal plants (Oryza sativa) of the grass family whose seeds are used as food.
2. n. The seeds of this plant used as food.
3. n. power, authority, dominion
4. n. kingdom, empire
5. v. to squeeze through a ricer; to mash or make into rice-sized pieces
6. v. to throw rice at a person (usually at a wedding).
7. v. to belittle a government emissary or similar on behalf of a more powerful militaristic state
8. v. to harvest wild rice Zinzania sp.
9. adj. powerful, mighty; rich
10. adj. alternative form of fro.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A well-known cereal grass (Oryza sativa) and its seed. This plant is extensively cultivated in warm climates, and the grain forms a large portion of the food of the inhabitants. In America it grows chiefly on low, moist land, which can be overflowed.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. sieve so that it becomes the consistency of rice
2. n. grains used as food either unpolished or more often polished
3. n. annual or perennial rhizomatous marsh grasses; seed used for food; straw used for paper
4. n. English lyricist who frequently worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber (born in 1944)
5. n. United States playwright (1892-1967)