noun
or spin·age ˈspinich, -nēch sometimes -nij or -nēj
( plural spinaches or spinages )
Etymology: Middle French espinache, espinage, from Old Spanish espinaca, from Arabic isbānakh, isfānākh, from Persian isfānākh
1. : an annual potherb ( Spinacia oleracea ) native to southwestern Asia and cultivated widely for its edible leaves which are used as greens — called also prickly-seeded spinach
2.
a. : something repellent, obnoxious, or nonexistent : something spurious or unwanted
the bankers' pet … was just so much spinach as far as the plain people were concerned — Jay Franklin
the spinach of controlled, cooperative effort — H.A.Moe
b. : an untidy overgrowth (as an untrimmed lawn or beard)
c. : an inessential, irrelevant, or inharmonious excrescence, addition, or decoration : frill
a child … has no interest in literary and artistic spinach — Rochelle Girson
might look at the externals of an airplane and see only struts, wires, and other such spinach — Air World