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.
Etymology: ME, orig. collect. pl. of obs. quoyn, coyn, f. OF cooin f. L cotoneum var. of cydoneum (apple) of Cydonia in Crete