ASPARAGUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does asparagus mean? 

• ASPARAGUS (noun)
  The noun ASPARAGUS has 2 senses:

1. plant whose succulent young shoots are cooked and eaten as a vegetable

2. edible young shoots of the asparagus plant

  Familiarity information: ASPARAGUS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASPARAGUS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Plant whose succulent young shoots are cooked and eaten as a vegetable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

asparagus; Asparagus officinales; edible asparagus

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

herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)

Meronyms (parts of "asparagus"):

asparagus (edible young shoots of the asparagus plant)

Holonyms ("asparagus" is a member of...):

genus Asparagus (large genus of Old World perennial herbs with erect or spreading or climbing stems and small scalelike leaves and inconspicuous flowers; sometimes placed in family Asparagaceae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Edible young shoots of the asparagus plant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

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

veg; vegetable; veggie (edible seeds or roots or stems or leaves or bulbs or tubers or nonsweet fruits of any of numerous herbaceous plant)

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

asparagus; Asparagus officinales; edible asparagus (plant whose succulent young shoots are cooked and eaten as a vegetable)

 Context examples 

The potatoes had to be hurried, not to keep the asparagus waiting, and were not done at the last.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Now there is nothing grandmama loves better than sweetbread and asparagus—so she was rather disappointed, but we agreed we would not speak of it to any body, for fear of its getting round to dear Miss Woodhouse, who would be so very much concerned!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

She boiled the asparagus for an hour and was grieved to find the heads cooked off and the stalks harder than ever.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The baked apples and biscuits, excellent in their way, you know; but there was a delicate fricassee of sweetbread and some asparagus brought in at first, and good Mr. Woodhouse, not thinking the asparagus quite boiled enough, sent it all out again.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Oh, there's corned beef and plenty of potatoes, and I shall get some asparagus and a lobster, 'for a relish', as Hannah says.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The walk revived her spirits, and flattering herself that she had made good bargains, she trudged home again, after buying a very young lobster, some very old asparagus, and two boxes of acid strawberries.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)