chestnut

ˈt͡ʃɛs(t)nʌt

3 definitions

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#1·8h ago

(countable) An edible nut (technically a fruit) of the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut tree (); also (chiefly preceded by a descriptive word), a nut from a related shrub or tree; or a similar nut from an unrelated plant.

Zav. At the dawn of the fourth day's journey, I entered the wood of Collares, when ſuddenly from the thick boughs of a cork tree— / Pab. (jumping up.) A cheſnut, Captain, a cheſnut. / Zav. Bah! you booby, I ſay, a cork. / Pab. And I ſwea…

Origin: The is a . Chesten is a late variant of chesteine (obsolete), from , chesteine, chasteine, chesteyne, from (), from (whence ), from , a variant of κᾰ́στᾰνᾰ; for further etymology, see that entry. . (“joke, phrase, etc., which has been repeated so often as to have grown ineffective or tiresome”) may refer to an 1816 play, The Broken Sword, by William Dimond (1781 – ), in which one character begins to relate a story in which a boy slips down from a cork tree, and another interrupts him to say that he had previously repeated the story many times, and always mentioned a chestnut tree. The. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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#2·8h ago

(countable) In full chestnut tree: the shrub or tree that bears this nut, the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut (); also (chiefly preceded by a descriptive word), a shrub or tree of the genus .

An owl cried among the silent Spanish chestnuts on the slope outside.

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#3·8h ago

(countable, figurative) Chiefly in old chestnut: a joke, meme, phrase, ploy, etc. which has been repeated so often as to have grown ineffective or tiresome; a cliché.

Zav. At the dawn of the fourth day's journey, I entered the wood of Collares, when ſuddenly from the thick boughs of a cork tree— / Pab. (jumping up.) A cheſnut, Captain, a cheſnut. / Zav. Bah! you booby, I ſay, a cork. / Pab. And I ſwea…

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