FRUIT

I. fruit 1 S2 W3 /fruːt/ BrE AmE noun ( plural fruit or fruits )

[ Word Family: noun : ↑ fruit , ↑ fruition , ↑ fruiterer ; adjective : ↑ fruitful ≠ ↑ fruitless , ↑ fruity ; verb : ↑ fruit ; adverb : ↑ fruitfully ≠ ↑ fruitlessly ]

[ Date: 1100-1200 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: Latin fructus , from frui 'to enjoy, have the use of' ]

1 . [uncountable and countable] something that grows on a plant, tree, or bush, can be eaten as a food, contains seeds or a stone, and is usually sweet:

Try to eat plenty of fresh fruit.

fruit and vegetables

a glass of fruit juice

a large garden with fruit trees

⇨ ↑ dried fruit , ↑ soft fruit

GRAMMAR

Fruit is usually uncountable:

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Fruit is inexpensive here.

It is used as a countable noun mainly to refer to one or more types of fruit:

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oranges and other citrus fruits

2 . [uncountable and countable] technical the part of a plant, bush, or tree that contains the seeds

3 . the fruit(s) of something the good results that you have from something, after you have worked very hard:

I’m looking forward to retirement and having time to enjoy the fruits of my labour (=the results of my hard work) .

4 . in fruit technical trees, plants etc that are in fruit are producing their fruit

5 . the fruits of the earth literary all the natural things that the earth produces, such as fruit, vegetables, or minerals

⇨ bear fruit at ↑ bear 1 (9)

II. fruit 2 BrE AmE verb [intransitive] technical

[ Word Family: noun : ↑ fruit , ↑ fruition , ↑ fruiterer ; adjective : ↑ fruitful ≠ ↑ fruitless , ↑ fruity ; verb : ↑ fruit ; adverb : ↑ fruitfully ≠ ↑ fruitlessly ]

if a tree or a plant fruits, it produces fruit