Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A soft moist shapeless mass of matter.
  • noun The soft moist part of fruit.
  • noun Plant matter remaining after a process, such as the extraction of juice by pressure, has been completed.
  • noun The soft pith forming the contents of the stem of a plant.
  • noun A mixture of cellulose material, such as wood, paper, and rags, ground up and moistened to make paper.
  • noun The soft tissue forming the inner structure of a tooth and containing nerves and blood vessels.
  • noun A mixture of crushed ore and water.
  • noun A publication, such as a magazine or book, containing lurid subject matter.
  • noun Lurid or sensational writing or subject matter.
  • intransitive verb To reduce to pulp.
  • intransitive verb To remove the pulp from (coffee berries).
  • intransitive verb To be reduced to a pulpy consistency.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make into pulp, in any sense; reduce to pulp: as, to pulp wood-fiber for paper; to pulp old papers.
  • To deprive of the surrounding pulp or pulpy substance: as, to pulp coffee-beans.
  • To be or to become ripe and juicy like the pulp of fruit.
  • noun Fruit prepared to be made into marmalade.
  • noun A moist, slightly cohering mass, consisting of soft undissolved animal or vegetable matter.
  • noun The material from which paper is manufactured after it is reduced to a soft uniform mass.
  • noun Chyme; the pulpified mass of food after chymification and before chylification.
  • noun The soft pulpy core of a tooth, consisting chiefly of the nerve accompanied by its vessels and connective tissue; a tooth-pulp.
  • noun The soft elastic fibrocartilage forming much of the substance of the intervertebral disks. It chiefly occupies the interior of these disks, whose periphery is more fibrous and tougher. To the compressibility and elasticity of this pulp is mainly due the action of the disks in serving as buffers to diminish concussion of the spine. The pulp is compressible enough to account also for the fact that a man may be appreciably taller in the morning after lying all night than in the evening after a day spent on the feet.
  • noun In mining, slimes; ore pulverized and mixed with water.
  • noun See the adjectives.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.) A tissue or part resembling pulp; especially, the soft, highly vascular and sensitive tissue which fills the central cavity, called the pulp cavity, of teeth.
  • noun (Bot.) The soft, succulent part of fruit.
  • noun The exterior part of a coffee berry.
  • noun The material of which paper is made when ground up and suspended in water.
  • transitive verb To reduce to pulp.
  • transitive verb To deprive of the pulp, or integument.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A soft, moist, shapeless mass or matter.
  • noun A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper.
  • noun The soft center of a fruit
  • noun The soft center of a tooth
  • noun A mixture of wood, cellulose and/or rags and water ground up to make paper.
  • noun Mass of chemically processed wood fibres (cellulose).
  • verb To make, or be made into pulp
  • verb To beat to a pulp.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any soft or soggy mass
  • verb remove the pulp from, as from a fruit
  • noun a soft moist part of a fruit
  • noun an inexpensive magazine printed on poor quality paper
  • noun the soft inner part of a tooth
  • verb reduce to pulp
  • noun a mixture of cellulose fibers

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin pulpa, fleshy parts of the body, fruit pulp.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin pulpa.

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Examples

  • That they are not can be demonstrated by the way in which the term pulp was introduced into literary discourse.

    Genres and niche markets 2009

  • That they are not can be demonstrated by the way in which the term pulp was introduced into literary discourse.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

  • You see, inside each tooth is what we call pulp that provides the nutrients and nerves to the tooth.

    State of the Union Brad Thor 2004

  • You see, inside each tooth is what we call pulp that provides the nutrients and nerves to the tooth.

    State of the Union Brad Thor 2004

  • You see, inside each tooth is what we call pulp that provides the nutrients and nerves to the tooth.

    State of the Union Brad Thor 2004

  • The Black Mask Quarterly site specialized in pulp horror, western, fantastic and science fiction stories from early in the 20th century.

    Stand back, I’m in pulp hawg heaven again. « Third Point of Singularity 2010

  • It's a common enough opposition, but rather than trying to break it down, by, say, making a case that "plot-oriented puzzles" have their own kind of substance, especially in pulp fiction, Ed unfortunately adopts it to his own purposes and in extolling the work of Donald Westlake reinforces the notion that "literature" is equivalent to "theme."

    The Reading Experience 2010

  • It's a common enough opposition, but rather than trying to break it down, by, say, making a case that "plot-oriented puzzles" have their own kind of substance, especially in pulp fiction, Ed unfortunately adopts it to his own purposes and in extolling the work of Donald Westlake reinforces the notion that "literature" is equivalent to "theme."

    Explain Yourself 2010

  • It's a common enough opposition, but rather than trying to break it down, by, say, making a case that "plot-oriented puzzles" have their own kind of substance, especially in pulp fiction, Ed unfortunately adopts it to his own purposes and in extolling the work of Donald Westlake reinforces the notion that "literature" is equivalent to "theme."

    Book Reviewing 2010

  • It's a common enough opposition, but rather than trying to break it down, by, say, making a case that "plot-oriented puzzles" have their own kind of substance, especially in pulp fiction, Ed unfortunately adopts it to his own purposes and in extolling the work of Donald Westlake reinforces the notion that "literature" is equivalent to "theme."

    April 2010 2010

Comments

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  • Drink Pulp, like the Peruvians.

    March 5, 2011

  • Interesting...

    When pulp is applied to literature it appears to lose the "valuableness" it has when applied to vegetative matter...

    And, since paper is derived from pulp and writing happens (often) on paper, why should pulp literature be considered "less than"?

    September 20, 2015