a dry one-seeded indehiscent fruit that usually possesses a woody wall
2. (not in technical use)
any similar fruit, such as the walnut, having a hard shell and an edible kernel
3.
the edible kernel of such a fruit
4. slang
a. sometimes humorous
a person who behaves in a foolish manner
b. offensive
a person who is mentally disturbed
c.
a person who is extremely enthusiastic about something specified
a baseball nut
5. a slang word for head (sense 1)
6. do one's nut
7. off one's nut
8.
a person or thing that presents difficulties (esp in the phrase a toughorhard nut to crack)
9.
a small square or hexagonal block, usually metal, with a threaded hole through the middle for screwing on the end of a bolt
10. mountaineering
a variously shaped small metal block, usually a wedge or hexagonal prism (originally an ordinary engineer's nut) with a wire or rope loop attached, for jamming into a crack to provide security
Also called: chock
11. Also called (US and Canadian): frog music
a.
the ledge or ridge at the upper end of the fingerboard of a violin, cello, etc, over which the strings pass to the tuning pegs
b.
the end of a violin bow that is held by the player
12. printing another word for en
13.
a small usually gingery biscuit
14. British
a small piece of coal
verbWord forms: nuts, nutting or nutted
15. (intransitive)
to gather nuts
16. (transitive) slang
to butt (someone) with the head
Derived forms
nutlike (ˈnutˌlike)
adjective
Word origin
Old English hnutu; related to Old Norse hnot, Old High German hnuz (German Nuss)