Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several Eurasian trees of the genus Sorbus of the rose family, especially a service tree.
  • noun The fruit of any of these plants.
  • transitive verb To take up and hold, as by absorption or adsorption.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A member of a Slavic race resident in Saxony and adjoining parts of Prussia. Also called Wend, or Lusatian Wend.
  • noun The service-tree, Pyrus (Sorbus) domestica.
  • noun The fruit of any of the above-named trees.

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

  • noun The wild service tree (Pyrus torminalis) of Europe; also, the rowan tree.
  • noun The fruit of these trees.
  • noun the fruit of the sorb, or wild service tree.
  • noun the wild service tree.

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

  • noun The wild service tree (Pyrus torminalis) of Europe.
  • noun The rowan tree.
  • noun The fruit of either of these trees.
  • verb chemistry To absorb or adsorb.

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

  • verb take up a liquid or a gas either by adsorption or by absorption
  • noun acid gritty-textured fruit

Etymologies

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

[French sorbe, sorb fruit, from Old French sourbe, from Vulgar Latin *sorba, from Latin sorbum.]

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

[Back-formation from absorb and adsorb.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin sorbus the tree, sorbum the fruit; compare French sorbe. See service tree.

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Examples

  • Typhoid epizootic sorb increased depends upon srm-rhotard vaccine.

    Rudy: Iraq Is "In The Hands Of Other People" 2009

  • He spoke and cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut them one after another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of the neck a turn in order that the man might contemplate the section of himself: he would thus learn a lesson of humility.

    The Symposium 2006

  • He spoke and cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut them one after another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of the neck a turn in order that the man might contemplate the section of himself: he would thus learn a lesson of humility.

    thispain Diary Entry thispain 2006

  • Who begat Gayoffo, whose ballocks were of poplar, and his pr ... of the service or sorb-apple-tree;

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • Who begat Gayoffo, whose ballocks were of poplar, and his pr ... of the service or sorb-apple-tree;

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • She aligned her body to his and gradually let him ab sorb her wei "How's that?" he asked in her ear.

    Breakfast In Bed Brown, Sandra, 1948- 1983

  • Heah's de Poteland niggahs cravin 'to' sorb fish mawnin ', night, an' noon.

    Lady Luck Hugh Wiley

  • He possessed neither a sorb nor a third arm -- so presumably he was not a native of Ifdawn.

    A Voyage to Arcturus David Lindsay 1910

  • When he realised with whom he had to deal, Crimtyphon left off smiling, slipped off the couch, and threw a terrible and malignant glare into his sorb.

    A Voyage to Arcturus David Lindsay 1910

  • She stood upright, and her sorb suddenly blazed with fire.

    A Voyage to Arcturus David Lindsay 1910

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