Definitions

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

  • noun A member of the pea family.
  • noun A widely cultivated climbing annual vine (Pisum sativum) native to Eurasia, having compound leaves with terminal leaflets modified into tendrils and globose, edible seeds enclosed in a green, elongated pod.
  • noun The pod of this plant.
  • noun The seed of this plant, used as a vegetable.
  • noun A similar seed of various other plants, such as a cowpea.
  • noun Any of several plants of the genus Lathyrus, such as the sweet pea or the beach pea.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the manufacture of sulphuric acid, the workman's name for a fragment of iron pyrites, from an eighth to a half inch in diameter.
  • noun The balance or sliding weight used on a steelyard.
  • noun In the West Indies, Dolichos sphærospermus. Both of the plants bear white beans having a black spot around the hilum.
  • noun A peafowl.
  • noun The seed of an annual hardy; leguminous vine, Pisum sativum; also, the vine itself.
  • noun Pea-spawn of a fish. See spawn.
  • noun plural Canned peas prepared in France, reputed to be superior to those canned in other countries.
  • noun Heisteria coccinea (French pois perdrix). See Heisteria.

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

  • noun (Naut.) See peak, n., 3.
  • noun The sliding weight on a steelyard.
  • noun (Bot.) A plant, and its fruit, of the genus Pisum, of many varieties, much cultivated for food. It has a papilionaceous flower, and the pericarp is a legume, popularly called a pod.
  • noun A name given, especially in the Southern States, to the seed of several leguminous plants (species of Dolichos, Cicer, Abrus, etc.) esp. those having a scar (hilum) of a different color from the rest of the seed.
  • noun (Bot.) a seashore plant, Lathyrus maritimus.
  • noun a West Indian name for Dolichos sphærospermus and its seed.
  • noun the American plant Clitoria Mariana, having showy blossoms.
  • noun See Chick-pea.
  • noun Same as Chick-pea.
  • noun See under Everlasting.
  • noun See under Glory, n.
  • noun any plant of the genus Tephrosia; goat's rue.
  • noun (Med.) See under Issue, and Orris.
  • noun (Bot.) See under Milk.
  • noun a kind of a coffee bean or grain which grows single, and is round or pea-shaped; often used adjectively.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Same as Pea weevil.
  • noun a size of coal smaller than nut coal.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any small crab of the genus Pinnotheres, living as a commensal in bivalves; esp., the European species (Pinnotheres pisum) which lives in the common mussel and the cockle.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the American ground dove.
  • noun (Bot.) a suborder (Papilionaceæ) of leguminous plants having blossoms essentially like that of the pea.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the larva of a European moth (Tortrix pisi), which is very destructive to peas.
  • noun (Min.) argillaceous oxide of iron, occurring in round grains of a size of a pea; pisolitic ore.
  • noun the starch or flour of the common pea, which is sometimes used in adulterating wheat flour, pepper, etc.
  • noun (Bot.) the name of several leguminous shrubs of the genus Caragana, natives of Siberia and China.
  • noun (Bot.) A kind of vetch or tare, common in the United States (Lathyrus Americana, and other similar species).
  • noun (Zoöl.) a small weevil (Bruchus pisi) which destroys peas by eating out the interior.
  • noun (Bot.) See Pigeon pea.
  • noun (Bot.) the annual plant Lathyrus odoratus; also, its many-colored, sweet-scented blossoms.

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

  • noun A plant, member of the legume (Fabaceae) family
  • noun The edible seed of some of these plants
  • noun baseball A ball travelling at high velocity

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

  • noun a leguminous plant of the genus Pisum with small white flowers and long green pods containing edible green seeds
  • noun seed of a pea plant used for food
  • noun the fruit or seed of a pea plant

Etymologies

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

[Back-formation from Middle English pease (mistaken for pl.), from Old English pise, piose, from Late Latin pīsa, variant of Latin pīsum, from Greek pisos, pison.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from pease, originally an uncountable noun meaning "peas" that was construed as a plural.

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