Definition

1. Noun:

   • The edible, typically sweet and fleshy product of a tree or other plant that contains seed(s) and can be eaten as food: This is the most common meaning, referring to a natural food item like an apple or banana.
   • The result or reward of work or activity; a consequence or outcome: This figurative meaning refers to the product or benefit gained from an effort, action, or set of conditions.
   • (Botany) The seed-bearing structure of a flowering plant, developed from the ovary after flowering.

2. Verb:

   • (Of a tree or plant) To produce fruit: To bear or yield fruit.
   • To cause (a plant) to bear fruit.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Botanical/Food):
  • Apples and oranges are common types of fruit.
  • The market sells fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Noun (Figurative - Result):
  • His success is the fruit of many years of hard work.
  • They finally enjoyed the fruit of their labor.
• Verb:
  • These trees fruit in late summer.
  • Proper care will help the plant fruit more abundantly.

Advanced Usage

• "To bear fruit": To yield positive results or outcomes.
  • Our investments are starting to bear fruit.
• "The fruit(s) of something": The results or benefits arising from a particular action or situation.
  • This discovery is the fruit of extensive research.
• "Forbidden fruit": Something that is desired precisely because it is not allowed (an allusion to the biblical story of Adam and Eve).
  • The strict rules made the activity seem like forbidden fruit.

Variants and Related Words

• Fruitful (adj): Producing good or helpful results; productive.
  • It was a fruitful discussion.
• Fruition (n): The realization or fulfillment of a plan or project.
  • After years of effort, her dream came to fruition.
• Fruitless (adj): Failing to achieve the desired results; unproductive or useless.
  • The search proved to be fruitless.

Synonyms

• Noun (Food): Produce, berry, drupe, pome.
• Noun (Result): Result, outcome, product, yield, benefit, reward, consequence.

Related Phrases

• Fruit salad: A dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, often chopped and mixed.
• Fruit tree: A tree that bears fruit, such as an apple or cherry tree.
• Fruit bat: A type of bat that feeds primarily on fruit.

Idioms

• "First fruits": The initial results or profits of an endeavor.
  • These sales are just the first fruits of our new marketing campaign.
• "Fruit of the loom": An old phrase, now primarily a brand name, originally referring to the products of a weaver's labor.

Noun

1. the consequence of some effort or action
   • he lived long enough to see the fruit of his policies
2. an amount of a product
3. the ripened reproductive body of a seed plant

Verb

1. bear fruit
   • the trees fruited early this year
2. cause to bear fruit