coconut

coconut

, cocoanut

the fruit of the coconut palm, consisting of a thick fibrous oval husk inside which is a thin hard shell enclosing edible white meat. The hollow centre is filled with a milky fluid (coconut milk)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

coconut

[′kō·kə‚nət]

(botany)

Cocos nucifera. A large palm in the order Arecales grown for its fiber and fruit, a large, ovoid, edible drupe with a fibrous exocarp and a hard, bony endocarp containing fleshy meat (endosperm).

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

coconut

presented to women who want to be mothers. [Ind. Folklore: Binder, 85]

See: Fertility

Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.