Log in or Sign up
  1. turnip love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A widely cultivated Eurasian plant (Brassica rapa) of the mustard family, having a large fleshy edible yellow or white root.
  2. n. The root of this plant, eaten as a vegetable.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The thick fleshy root of the plant designated by Linnæus as Brassica Rapa, but now believed to be a variety, together with the rape (which see), of B. campestris, a plant found wild, in varieties corresponding to these plants, in Europe and Asiatic Russia (see navew); also, the plant itself, a common garden and field crop. The rutabaga, or Swedish turnip, with smooth leaves, and root longer than broad, is referred with probability to the same source. The turnip proper has the root rounded, often broader than long, the root-leaves usually lobed, rough and hairy. The turnip was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans, and is now widely grown in temperate climates for use in soups and stews, or as a boiled vegetable, mashed or whole, and for feeding cattle and sheep, forming in Great Britain a valuable rotation crop. The young shoots of the second year, known as turnip-tops, are dressed for early greens. The turnip is little nutritious, containing from 90 to 92 per cent. of water. The rutabaga is somewhat more nutritious, but less easily grown. The varieties of both plants are numerous. The crop sometimes suffers from an affection called finger-and-toe or dactylorhiza, in which the root divides into branches, apparently a tendency to revert to the wild state. Various insects attack the turnip. See turnip-fly.
  2. n. Same as Indian turnip.
  3. n. (See also lion's-turnip, prairie-turnip.)

Wiktionary

  1. n. The white root of a yellow-flowered plant, Brassica rapa, grown as a vegetable and as fodder for cattle.
  2. n. Scotland, Ireland, Cornish, Atlantic Canada The yellow root of a related plant, the swede or Brassica napus.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Bot.) The edible, fleshy, roundish, or somewhat conical, root of a cruciferous plant (Brassica campestris, var. Napus); also, the plant itself.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. widely cultivated plant having a large fleshy edible white or yellow root
  2. n. root of any of several members of the mustard family

Etymologies

  1. From turnepe, probably from turn (due to round shape, as though turned on a lathe) + Middle English nepe, from Old English næp, from Latin napus. Cognate to neep; see also parsnip. (Wiktionary)
  2. tur-, of unknown meaning + dialectal nepe, turnip (from Middle English, from Old English nǣp, from Latin nāpus). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Indian demurred; but opposition had only increased her craving for the turnip in a tenfold degree; and, after a short mental struggle, in which the animal propensity overcame the warnings of prudence, the squaw gave up the bowl, and received in return _one turnip_.”

    Life in the Backwoods

  • “In guidelines which stated that minced or diced beef, sliced potato, onion and swede were the only ingredients permitted in the traditional snack, officials were forced to allow the word "turnip" in ingredient lists - though not in the pasties themselves - because the Cornish confusingly use the word to refer to Swedes.”

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph

  • “You could put in turnip, buttersquah, swede or mushrooms in this too”

    Archive 2006-10-01

  • “But Lisa Lu, the Taiwan native and principal of the Pomona Valley Chinese School, said turnip cake is common in her family because the word turnip in the Taiwanese language sounds like the words good luck.”

    Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Most Viewed

  • “* An elderly "turnip" - style pocket watch -- not working”

    Boing Boing: July 20, 2003 - July 26, 2003 Archives

  • “The priestess, whose clear-cut features and two lovely black eyes betrayed a mixture of Semitic blood, was examining the 'turnip' -- as she called the watch -- when Leonora, saying 'Mum's the word,' rather violently called my attention (with her elbow) to a strange parcel lying apart from the rest.”

    He

  • “It will have to be acknowledged that as long as the black rats were in power they were as much shunned by all other living creatures as the gray rats are in our day – and for just cause; they had thrown themselves upon poor, fettered prisoners, and tortured them; they had ravished the dead; they had stolen the last turnip from the cellars of the poor; bitten off the feet of sleeping geese; stolen eggs and chicks from the hens; and had committed a thousand depredations.”

    The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

  • “We're at least as important to the economy as detecting whether that turnip is really organic or not!)”

    You Don't Know Me

  • “However, I want to take this opportunity to recommend Sylvia’s Kicking Hot Sauce, and her greens seasoning will turn plain turnip leaf into the food of the Gods.”

    Waldo Jaquith - “My lucky stars, a negro!”

  • “Kolrabi is apparently more favored by Germans than Americans, and was described as a turnip with a cabbage-y taste.”

    Day in the Life of an Idiot

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

synonyms (8)

Words with the same meaning

  1. white turnip
  1. Scotland
  1. swede
  1. summer turnip
  1. Ireland
  1. England
  1. tumshie
  1. Northern

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. turnip plant

same context (16)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. carrot
  2. onion
  3. beets
  1. lentil
  2. barley
  3. beet
  1. cucumber
  2. squash
  3. clover
  1. mushroom
  2. pork
  3. garlic
  1. flax
  2. wheat
  3. pumpkin
  1. oatmeal

reverse dictionary (72)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. ruta-baga
  2. swede
  3. white turnip
  4. Swedish turnip
  5. turnip
  6. turnip cabbage
  7. flea
  8. turnip-aphid
  9. celeriac
  10. turnip-pest
  11. turnep
  12. turnip-flea
  13. turnip-maggot
  14. Brassica
  1. black flea
  2. jicama
  3. cerostoma
  4. kohl-rabi
  5. turnip-jack
  6. flea-beetle
  7. jack-in-the-pulpit
  8. cruciferous
  9. green dragon
  10. Indian turnip
  11. neep
  12. nip
  13. cabbage butterfly
  14. jumping-beetle
  1. turnip-beetle
  2. turnip-radish
  3. turnip-rooted
  4. turnip-tailed
  5. yellowtop
  6. napifolious
  7. napiform
  8. navew
  9. Shaw
  10. kohlrabi
  11. brassica
  12. cabbage fly
  13. cole-rape
  14. coventry-rape
  1. dragon-root
  2. hop-flea
  3. keblock
  4. knoll
  5. turnip-shaped
  6. Welwitschia
  7. welwitschia mirabilis
  8. broccoli raab
  9. turnipy
  10. rave
  11. brassica oleracea gongylodes
  12. napus
  13. pomme blanche
  14. prairie turnip
  1. rape
  2. turnip flea
  3. turnip fly
  4. turnip-shell
  5. vegetable
  6. y moth
  7. anbury
  8. bondager
  9. drosophila
  10. hooded
  11. nigger
  12. pit
  13. arisæma
  14. crown
  1. turnip-wood
  2. top

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. plant

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘turnip’

  1. nimblecomequick

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘turnip’.

More lists containing ‘turnip’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • knitandpurl A (clunky) watch - see http://thesaurus.com/browse/clock

    "So she put her fur wrapper back on, looked at the time on an enormous old turnip which she took out of a carpetbag, paid for her camomile tea, leaving a most ungratifying gratuity for the waiter, and left, in despair."
    Witch Grass by Raymond Queneau, translated by Barbara Wright, p 29 of the NYRB paperback Nov 5, 2010

  • bilby Hippy slang - an inexperienced person, a newbie who would 'turn up' at a gathering, festival, retreat, etc. without any equipment or clothes for living rough. Apr 3, 2008

Tweets

Looking for tweets for turnip.

‘turnip’ has been looked up 2460 times, loved by 1 person, added to 29 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 8.