n. 1 a hard acid pear-shaped fruit used as a preserve or flavouring. 2 any shrub or small tree of the genus Cydonia, esp. c. oblonga, bearing this fruit.
[ ME, orig. collect. pl. of obs. quoyn, coyn, f. OF cooin f. L cotoneum var. of cydoneum (apple) of Cydonia in Crete ]