ACORN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does acorn mean? 

• ACORN (noun)
  The noun ACORN has 1 sense:

1. fruit of the oak tree: a smooth thin-walled nut in a woody cup-shaped base

  Familiarity information: ACORN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACORN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fruit of the oak tree: a smooth thin-walled nut in a woody cup-shaped base

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("acorn" is a kind of...):

fruit (the ripened reproductive body of a seed plant)

Meronyms (parts of "acorn"):

acorn cup; cupule (cup-shaped structure of hardened bracts at the base of an acorn)

Holonyms ("acorn" is a part of...):

oak; oak tree (a deciduous tree of the genus Quercus; has acorns and lobed leaves)

 Context examples 

One theory is that the monkeys weren't used to eating the continent's food: They were unwilling to trade South America's tropical fruits for northern acorns.

(First-ever fossil monkey found in North America, NSF)

Food, however, became scarce, and I often spent the whole day searching in vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs of hunger.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“Something that a sailor needs even more than that,” answered the admiral, and turning it over he tilted a pile of acorns on to his palm.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"I haven't heard Frank laugh so much for ever so long," said Grace to Amy, as they sat discussing dolls and making tea sets out of the acorn cups.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The method is this: in an acre of ground you bury, at six inches distance and eight deep, a quantity of acorns, dates, chestnuts, and other mast or vegetables, whereof these animals are fondest; then you drive six hundred or more of them into the field, where, in a few days, they will root up the whole ground in search of their food, and make it fit for sowing, at the same time manuring it with their dung: it is true, upon experiment, they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"I guess the princess gave him a posy, and opened the gate after a while," said Laurie, smiling to himself, as he threw acorns at his tutor.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

There was a pleasing inequality in the table, which produced many mishaps to cups and plates, acorns dropped in the milk, little black ants partook of the refreshments without being invited, and fuzzy caterpillars swung down from the tree to see what was going on.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)