| 释义 |
▪ I. vegetable, n.|ˈvɛdʒɪtəb(ə)l|
Also 6 vegitable.
[f. the adj.]
1. a. A living organism belonging to the vegetable kingdom or the lower of the two series of organic beings; a growth devoid of animal life; a plant in the widest or scientific sense (= plant n.1 2).
1582J. Hester Compendium Ration. Secr. (title-p.), The Hidden Vertues of sondrie Vegitables, Animalles, and Mineralls. 1598R. Haydocke tr. Lomazzo ii. 125 Some of them are taken from minerals.., some from the vegetables, and some from the animals. 1653W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 12, I suppose there is none will..deny..the Heavens and Planets to have influence over Herbs, Corn, Plants, and all Vegetables. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iv. vi. (1695) 337 In Vegetables, which are nourished, grow, and produce Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds, in a constant Succession. 1737Gray Lett. Poems (1775) 24 Both vale and hill are covered with most venerable beeches, and other very reverend vegetables. 1782V. Knox Ess. clii. (1819) III. 169 They [i.e. speeches] are like vegetables of a night, or insects of a day. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 387 After the rushes or other coarse vegetables have been cut down and carried away. 1822–7Good Study Med. (1829) I. 265 The expressed oils of mild vegetables, as the pistachio, olive, and almond. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. (1883) 205 Both [trees] are pleasant vegetables. 1884De Candolle's Orig. Cultivated Pl. 4 The Tetragonia, an insignificant green vegetable.
fig.a1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 44 He was a meer vegetable of the Court, that sprung up at night, and sunk again at his noon. 1709Steele Tatler No. 86 ⁋3, I met him with all the respect due to so reverend a vegetable; for you are to know, that is my sense of a person who remains idle in the same place for half a century.
†b. pl. in collective sense: Vegetation. Obs.
c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 43, I have bin alwaies naturally affected to woods and groves, and those kind of vegetables. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth vi. (1723) 295 June, July, and August..exhibit a still different Shew of Vegetables, and Face of Things. 1780A. Young Tour Irel. I. 18 Their only way is to let it cover itself with such vegetables as may come. 1821Scott Pirate xxv, Scrubby and stunted heath, intermixed with the long bent, or coarse grass,..were the only vegetables that could be seen.
†c. Applied to the earth or to a mineral regarded as capable of growth. Obs. rare.
a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. iii. (1677) 96 Though the Earth be not animated with a Sensible Soul, yet it is possible that it may be a great Immortal Vegetable. 1716Cheyne Philos. Princ. Nat. Relig. i. 278 A hill is nothing but the Nest of some Mettle or Mineral, either of Stone, Iron, Tin, Copper or such like lower Vegetables.
2. A plant cultivated for food; esp. an edible herb or root used for human consumption and commonly eaten, either cooked or raw, with meat or other article of food.
1767A. Young Farmer's Lett. to People (1771) I. 461 The cultivation of the new-discovered vegetables, and all the modes of raising the old ones. 1796E. Inchbald Nature & Art xlvi. (1820) 158 At a stinted repast of milk and vegetables. 1840Loudon Cottager's Man. 4 in Husb. III. (L.U.K.), To supply the cottager's family..with vegetables, potatoes, and faggots. 1846A. Soyer Cookery 450 Where a dish of vegetables are required for second course. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 243 Cabbages or any other vegetables which are fit for boiling.
3. fig. A person who leads an uneventful or monotonous life, without intellectual or social activity; also, one reduced by illness to little more than a physical body. Cf. vegetable a. 5.
1921G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah i. 26 What use is this thousand years of life to you, you old vegetable? 1933A. Huxley Let. 9 Oct. (1969) 373, I was so glad to hear from Norah that you were going on as well as cd be expected. It will be a weary business for a bit,..sitting still and being a vegetable. 1953Chicago Daily Sun-Times 29 Dec. 40/5 It should not be inferred that Rocky is a vegetable, incapable of thinking for himself. 1961J. Dawson Ha-Ha iii. 48 I'm going to go on working... Tony says he would hate a wife who was just a vegetable. 1976Smythies & Corbett Psychiatry vii. 123 Eventually they become bedridden and incontinent ‘vegetables’. 1980B. Castle Castle Diaries 242, I hope and pray she will die with dignity and not be reduced by a stroke into a vegetable.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. Simple attrib. in sense 2, as vegetable-basin, vegetable dish, vegetable food, vegetable garden, vegetable juice, vegetable-market, vegetable oil, vegetable patch, vegetable rack, etc.
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Vegetation, The common Opinion..is, that Water is the great vegetable Food. 1820D. Wordsworth Jrnl. 20 July (1941) II. 39 A level bottomed oval vessel like the foundations of our vegetable dishes. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. III. 15 Two vegetable dishes. 1853Hickie Aristoph. (Bohn) II. 416 In the pottery-market and the vegetable-market alike. a1860Alb. Smith Med. Student (1861) 17 Threading their way through the crowd of the vegetable-waggons arriving for to-morrow's market. 1887Outing X. 12/1 Back of its hacienda is a fine orchard and vegetable garden. 1898F. G. Lee Negl. Bapt. 11 A vegetable-basin or a soap⁓dish was used instead of the font. 1898Cent. Mag. Jan. 337/1 May I tell him..about your vegetable garden? 1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) p. lxi/5 (Index), Vegetable racks. 1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 20 Mar. 17/1 The born gardener is still looking ahead in the Fall when other people store their tools and never do a hand's turn in the vegetable patch until the Spring urge comes upon them again. 1926Ibid. 16 Jan. 15/3 Listed in the..general cargo..is a large quantity of vegetable oil in bulk. 1975P. G. Winslow Death of Angel ii. 65 Vegetable juice and soya beans. 1977Times 6 May 13/4 EEC imports of vegetable oils and oil-cakes. 1978G. Mitchell Mingled with Venom x. 102 The poison roots were never in your vegetable rack. 1979J. D. MacDonald Green Ripper (1980) i. 15 One of her vegetable juice cocktails. 1979A. Clarke Poisoned Web x. 77 She was down..in the vegetable patch..staring at the runner-beans.
b. Objective or obj. genitive, as vegetable-eater, vegetable-feeder, vegetable-seller; vegetable-eating, vegetable-feeding adjs.
Also with the names of instruments, as vegetable-chopper, vegetable-cutter, vegetable-grater, vegetable-slicer, etc. (Knight Dict. Mech.)
(a)1792A. Young Trav. France 28 There are both sorts [of bears], carnivorous and vegetable-eaters. 1851–6S. P. Woodward Mollusca (1858) 12 All the land-snails are vegetable-feeders. 1867M. Arnold Celtic Lit. 4 Bathing people, vegetable-sellers, and donkey boys. 1875C. C. Blake Zool. 54 The cheiroptera are, however, vegetable-feeders.
(b)1838Penny Cycl. XII. 493/1 In a vegetable-feeding insect the stomach is very voluminous. 1874J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl xxv. 262 They are exceedingly expert divers, and can swim under water to much longer distances than any others of the vegetable-eating ducks. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 966 These stony masses are found in the intestines of many vegetable-feeding animals.
▪ II. vegetable, a.|ˈvɛdʒɪtəb(ə)l|
Also 6 vegitabile, 7 -able.
[a. OF. vegetable (mod.F. végétable, = It. vegetabile, Sp. vegetable, Pg. vegetavel), or ad. L. vegetābilis animating, vivifying, f. vegetāre: see vegetate v.
In some instances the adj. cannot be clearly distinguished from the attributive uses of the n.]
†1.
a. Having the vegetating property of plants; living and growing as a plant or organism endowed with the lowest form of life. (Cf. vegetal a. 1.)
c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 90 What þinge vegetable þat..makys fruyt, to þe sonne ys apropird. 1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. 674 Zephirus, þat is so comfortable For to norysche þinges vegetable. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 73 Hit may be concludede Paradise not to be there, sythe noo thynge vegetable may haue lyfe þer. c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1053 All thynges created of God under the moone..ben elemented vegetables and sensytyves. 1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Vegetable, springing, or growing as hearbes. 1629H. Burton Truth's Tri. 197 How far themselues differ from senslesse stockes, or come short of the vegetable trees. a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iii. iv. (1677) 206 Things vegetable, that have simply Life, with those operations incident to Life.
fig.1641W. Cartwright Lady-Errant i. ii, The other counts her apricots,..lays 'em naked And open to the sun, that it may freely Smile on her vegetable embraces. a1678Marvell Poems, To coy Mistress 11 My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow.
†b. Of the soul. Obs.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy iii. 5686 Comparysownyd, as it were semblable, To a sowle þat were vegetable, Þe whiche, with-oute sensibilite, Mynystreth lyf in herbe, flour, and tre. c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1053 In the whiche [body] our Lorde hath planted the soule vegetable by the whiche it groweth. 1610Healey St. Aug. Citie of God xxii. iv. (1620) 821 The earth is full of vegetable soules, strangely combined with earthly bodies. 1610J. Guillim Heraldry iii. vi. (1611) 101 A vegetable Soul is a facultie or power that giueth life vnto bodies.
†c. vegetable power, the principle of simple life and growth. Obs.
1601Dolman La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1618) iii. 672 The vegetable power common to men and plants. 1625Hart Anat. Ur. i. ii. 29 The state of the nourishing or vegetable power ouer the whole bodie.
†d. vegetable stone, one of the three varieties of the philosophers' stone, supposed to possess health-preserving properties. Obs.
After med.L. lapis vegetabilis: cf. Gower Conf. II. 86.
1652Ashmole Theatr. Chem. Brit. Proleg. 7 By the Vegitable [Stone] may be perfectly known the Nature of Man.
2. Of or pertaining to, composed or consisting of, derived or obtained from, plants or their parts; of the nature of or resembling a vegetable. Freq. as contrasted with animal or mineral products.
a. Of material substances.
1582J. Hester Secr. Phiorav. i. xxxiii. 39 You shall giue them ℥j of our Vegitabile Sirrup. 1594Plat Jewell-ho. i. 3 All sorts of soyle..do draw their generatiue & fructifying vertue from that vegetable salt. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth ii. (1723) 101 By Retrenching a considerable Quantity of the vegetable Matter. 1721Mortimer Husbandry II. 207 Statues are a lasting Ornament when vegetable Ornaments are out of Season. 1725Pope Odyss. iv. 320 The direful bane Of vegetable venom. 1755Dict. Arts & Sci. IV. 2679/1 Almost all concretes that abound either with mineral or vegetable sulphur. 1800Hull Advertiser 31 May 2/2 The superiority of coal to vegetable tar. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. ii. §3. 84 The insoluble pectose contained in the vegetable tissue. 1875Scrivener Lect. Greek Test. 18 The ancient ink was purely vegetable, without any metallic base.
poet.1667Milton P.L. iv. 220 And all amid them stood the Tree of Life, High eminent, blooming Ambrosial Fruit Of vegetable Gold. 1820Shelley Prometh. Unb. iii. iv. 110 My coursers sought their birthplace in the sun,..Pasturing flowers of vegetable fire. 1857Emerson Poems 91 The zephyr in his garden rolled From plum-trees vegetable gold.
b. Of conditions, actions, qualities, etc.
1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxvii. §4 The wood, bark, and leaves, &c. of an oak, in which consists the vegetable life. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 178 My Song to flow'ry Gardens might extend, To teach the Vegetable Arts. 1712Pope Vertumnus & Pomona 4 None taught the trees a nobler race to bear, Or more improv'd the vegetable care. 1733Arbuthnot Ess. Effects Air i. 9 The Heat arising from vegetable Perspiration is very sensible in a hot Day near a Field of Corn. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. l. V. 172 The lonesome traveller derives a sort of comfort and society from the presence of vegetable life. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 571 The learned President begins this paper by a theory of animal and vegetable processes, deriving them..from fermentation. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 25 This short passage comprehends the essence of all that can be said on the subject of vegetable development. 1874Spurgeon Treas. David Ps. xcii. 10 The brutish men grow with a sort of vegetable vigour of their own.
c. Of earth, mould, etc.: (see later quots.).
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. i. vi. (1776) I. 55 In regions which are uninhabited,..where the forests are not cut down,..the bed of vegetable earth is constantly encreasing. 1812New Botanic Gard. I. 53 Beds of light vegetable earth. Ibid., Good light vegetable mould. 1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 137 What remains, when the decomposition has totally broken down the structure of the vegetable, is a black pulverulent substance... This constitutes what is called vegetable mould, and is also the chief ingredient in vegetable manure. 1855Orr's Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat. 185 Whatever rocks may be composed of, they are sure to be covered, after a time, with debris,..until at last there is a covering of vegetable soil.
3. vegetable creation, vegetable kingdom, vegetable world, etc., that division of organic nature to which plants belong.
1668Cowley Ess. Prose & Verse, Garden (1906) 427 Who would not joy to see his conquering hand Ore all the Vegetable World command? 1692–[see kingdom 5]. 1718Prior Solomon i. 49 The Vegetable World, each Plant, and Tree,..I am allow'd, as Fame reports, to know. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 206 This extends in more or less degree to every part of vegetable creation. 1843Penny Cycl. XXVI. 180/2 The distinction given between the animal and vegetable kingdoms is the possession of sensation by the former. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 84 To supply the vegetable world with its carbon.
4. Of, composed or consisting of, made from, esculent vegetables.
1746Francis tr. Horace, Sat. ii. v. 22 What your Garden yields,..To him be sacrific'd, and let him taste, Before your Gods, the vegetable Feast. 1789W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 449 A milk and vegetable diet..will often perform a cure. 1842Combe Digestion 305 Vegetable food and fruit might, with propriety, be used by the middle and richer classes in this country to a greater extent than it is. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Vegetable-soups, soups made with green pease, turnips, and carrots cut small, cabbages, &c.
5. Resembling that of a vegetable; esp. uneventful, featureless, monotonous, dull.
1854J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) II. ii. 46 The pauper peasantry, weary of a merely vegetable life, were glad of any pretext for excitement. 1874Sayce Compar. Philol. vii. 298 They had no occasion to mark the lapse of time in their monotonous and vegetable existence.
6. ellipt. Living on vegetables; vegetarian.
1812Shelley in Hogg Life (1858) II. 197, I continue vegetable; Harriet means to be slightly animal, until the arrival of spring.
7. a. Special collocations.
vegetable acid, an organic acid derived from a plant. vegetable alkali (see quots. and alkali 3). vegetable brimstone (see quot. and lycopodium 2). vegetable butter (see quot. and butter n.1 3). vegetable camel (see quot.). vegetable casein, = legumin. vegetable caterpillar, vegetable egg, vegetable ethiops (see quots.). vegetable fat, fat obtained or manufactured from plants. vegetable fire-cracker, vegetable flannel, † vegetable fly (see quots.). vegetable gelatin: see gelatin 1 b. vegetable gold, † (a) saffron (Mayne, 1859); (b) an acid derived from the roots of the plant Trixis Pipizahuac (Treas. Bot. 1866). vegetable hair, the long-beard, Tillandsia usneiodes (Ibid.). vegetable horse-hair, the fibre of the leaves of the European palm Chamærops humilis (Ibid. Suppl. 1874). vegetable ivory (see ivory 2); also attrib. vegetable jelly, = pectin. † vegetable lamb: see lamb n. 5 c. vegetable lard, a solid cooking fat prepared from vegetable products. vegetable leather, the plant Euphorbia punicea (Treas. Bot. 1866). vegetable marrow: see marrow n.1 3. vegetable mummy: see mummy n.1 2 c. vegetable oil, oil obtained or manufactured from plants. vegetable oyster: (a) U.S., salsify; (b) scorzonera. vegetable parchment: see parchment n. 1 b. vegetable pear, the chocho (see pear n. 3). vegetable sheep, vegetable silk (see quots.). vegetable spaghetti, a variety of vegetable marrow bearing fruits whose flesh resembles spaghetti in appearance; also, the fruit itself or its flesh. vegetable sponge = dishcloth gourd s.v. dish-cloth 2. vegetable sulphur, vegetable brimstone. vegetable tallow, vegetable vellum (see quots.). vegetable wax, a wax or wax-like substance obtained from plants or vegetable growths. vegetable wool (see quot.).
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Alkaly, Since *Vegetable Acids are originally no other than Mineral ones. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 389 The acetous, and most other vegetable acids, have some action upon tin. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 684 Acids, including vegetable acids.
1778Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2) III. 1809/1 The fixed kind are subdivided into..the *vegetable, and mineral or fossile alkali. 1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 5 Of the fixed [alkalis] there are two species, the one generally afforded by the incineration of inland vegetables, and thence called the Vegetable Alkali. 1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 588 Carbonate of Potash..was characterized by a great variety of names, according to the manner of preparing it; such as fixed nitre, salt of tartar, vegetable alkali.
1846Lindley Veget. Kingd. 70 The powder contained in the spore⁓cases of Lycopodium clavatum and Selago..is employed under the name of Lycopode, or *vegetable brimstone,..in the manufacture of fireworks, and..to roll up pills.
1836Penny Cycl. VI. 68/2 *Vegetable butters, the name given to the concrete oil of certain vegetables, from its resemblance to the butter obtained from the milk of animals, and from being employed for similar purposes. The term is also occasionally, but improperly, applied to some vegetable products which are entirely of a waxy nature, such as the wax of the Myrica cerifera.
1845–50A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. vi. 40 Some of them [plants] flourish in the most dry and sandy places, exposed to a burning sun; as the Stapelia, sometimes called the *vegetable camel.
1841*Vegetable caseine [see casein 1].
1889E. Wakefield New Zealand after 50 Yrs. 81 The aweto, or *vegetable-caterpillar, called by the naturalists Hipialis virescens... For some inexplicable reason, the spore of a vegetable fungus Sphæria Robertsii, fixes itself on its neck.., takes root and grows vigorously.
1866Treas. Bot. 1018/2 S[apota] mammosa..yields the Marmalade fruit sometimes called the *Vegetable Egg.
1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 26 Of ivory shavings, sponge, and the *vegetable æthiops, bladerwrack, is charcoal also made. 1860Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 5) III. 949 Vegetable ethiops, a charcoal prepared by the incineration in a covered crucible of the fucus vesiculosus, or common sea wrack.
1884*Vegetable fat [see vegetable oil]. 1956[see nordihydroguaiaretic acid s.v. nor-]. 1967Vegetable fat [see vegetable oil].
1874Treas. Bot. Suppl. 1350/2 *Vegetable firecracker, Brodiæa coccinea.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2695/1 *Vegetable-flannel, a fabric made of a fine fiber obtained from the leaves of the Pinus sylvestris. Pine-wool.
1763Phil. Trans. LIII. 271 The *vegetable fly is found in the island Dominica, and (excepting that it has no wings) resembles the drone both in size and colour more than any other English insect. In the month of May it buries itself in the earth, and begins to vegetate.
1842–*Vegetable ivory [see ivory 2]. 1880C. R. Markham Peruv. Bark 219 A hut was made among vegetable-ivory palms. 1885A. Brassey The Trades 109 The vegetable-ivory plant (Phytelephas macrocarpa)..attracted a large share of attention.
1826Henry Elem. Chem. II. 194 *Vegetable jelly, unless when tinged by the fruit from which it has been obtained, is nearly colourless. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. ii. §3. 83 Vegetable Jelly (formerly called pectin).
1894C. R. A. Wright Animal & Vegetable Fixed Oils xiv. 305 Amongst the Hindoos and others whose religious beliefs preclude the use of animal fats..a large sale now exists for purely vegetable fats of buttery consistence (*vegetable lard). 1918C. A. Mitchell Edible Oils & Fats iii. 33 Coconut oil is treated with alcohol and animal charcoal and the resulting product, which is practically tasteless, is sold as ‘vegetable lard’.
1797Encycl. Brit. XIII. 192/1 *Vegetable oils are obtained by expression, infusion, and distillation. 1884Ibid. XVII. 741/1 The ordinary method for separating vegetable oils and fats from the nuts, seeds, &c., of which they form constituent parts is by pressure. 1967Ann. Reg. 1966 166 The long-delayed common market regulations for sugar, vegetable fats and oils, and fruit and vegetables.
1845–50A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. 185 Such [compound flowers] as have ligulate florets; as the dandelion, lettuce, and *vegetable-oyster. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 307 Oyster-plant, salsify.., so called from its resemblance in taste, when cooked, to the oyster. It is also called the Vegetable Oyster. 1882The Garden 11 Nov. 425/3 Salsafy and Scorzonera. Those fond of using pet names often call one or other of these the..‘vegetable oyster’.
1866Treas. Bot. 959/1 The name of *Vegetable Sheep (!) is given by the settlers in New Zealand to R[aoulia] eximia, because, from its growing in large white tufts on elevated sheep-runs, it may be readily mistaken for the sheep. 1895in Morris Austral Engl. (1898) 246/2 There is in the Alpine regions of the South Island a plant popularly called the ‘vegetable sheep’, botanically named Raoulia.
1853T. C. Archer Pop. Econ. Bot. 181 *Vegetable silk. 1866Treas. Bot., Vegetable Silk, a cotton-like material obtained from the seed-pods of Chorisia speciosa.
1973Times 2 Nov. 22/8 If *vegetable spaghetti is as tasteless as marrow, which I believe it is, no self-respecting British housewife would buy it at any price. 1978J. U. Crockett Vegetables & Fruits v. 109 There are also several unusual kinds [of marrow], including the vegetable spaghetti, with bright yellow, 20 cm (8 in.) marrows, which, when cooked, spill out their flesh like spaghetti.
1978R. Whitlock Growing Unusual Vegetables 50/2 The vegetable spaghetti plant is of the trailing type, not bush, so allow room for it to ramble.
1889Cent. Dict. s.v. Sponge-gourd, The netted fiber from the interior of the fruit is used for washing and other purposes, hence called *vegetable sponge. 1984Gardening from ‘Which?’ Mar. 75/1 The loofah's other common names of vegetable sponge or dish cloth gourd give a clue to its true identity.
1855Ogilvie Suppl. 402/2 *Vegetable sulphur, a powder obtained from the theca of..common club moss [etc.].
1846Foreign Q. Rev. April 88 Among the exports of Borneo..[are] *vegetable tallow,..coffee [etc.]. 1866Treas. Bot. 1206 Vegetable tallow, a fatty substance obtained from Stillingia sebifera, Vateria indica, and other plants.
1888Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 151 *Vegetable vellum, Japanese vellum-paper specially prepared to imitate vellum.
1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 495 In China and in North America, wax is obtained directly from plants, and is then called *vegetable-wax. 1843Penny Cycl. XXVI. 180/1 Myrica quercifolia, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, is another species which yields a vegetable wax. 1853T. C. Archer Pop. Econ. Bot. 281 Vegetable Wax (South American). Ibid. 282 Vegetable Wax, or Myrtle Wax (of North America).
1884Chambers's Jrnl. 8 March 146/2 The prepared fibre of this plant [Neilgherry nettle] is sometimes called *Vegetable wool.
b. In the names of pigments, as vegetable black, vegetable blue, etc.
1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 174 This acid reddens vegetable blues, and gradually destroys the greater number of them. 1875Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. x. (ed. 2) 365 Vegetable Black.—This is the cheapest and best black for all ordinary work. |