onion

plural onions · alternative obsolete onyon

1. A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.

   Some of the weeds that cause an undesirable flavor in milk are: onion, tarweed, scaleweed, garlic, mustard, pepper grass.

   1944, Oregon. Agricultural experiment station, Circular of Information - Issues 323-395, page 3

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   To get started, how about creating an edible window box? Sowed in the spring, salad seeds like radish, lettuce and spring onion will germinate so quickly that you'll be harvesting a crop in a month or two.

   2021, Rose Ray, Caro Langton, Into Green: Everyday Ways to Find and Lose Yourself in Nature, page 62

2. The bulb of such a plant.

   My eyes are stinging from the chopped onions.

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   Among the ancient Greeks, onions are most frequently mentioned as a stimulus to sexual desire.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 158

   dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] cook. glazed with a yellow substance; pome(s ~, sopes ~. […] 1381 Pegge Cook. Recipes p. 114: For to make Soupys dorry. Nym onyons […] Nym wyn […] toste wyte bred and do yt in dischis, and god Almande mylk.

   1962 (quoting 1381 text), Hans Kurath & Sherman M. Kuhn, eds., Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-01044-8, page 1242

   Goulash, a local favorite, was brought up-to-date with seared grass-fed rib-eye, stewed cippolini onions and roasted cherry tomatoes.

   2015 September 4, “In Minnesota’s Iron Range, Midwestern With a Modern Twist”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2020

3. Any of various plants, mostly of the genus Allium, that are more or less similar to Allium cepa.

   Many onions are delicious; domesticated onions such as Allium cepa and Allium fistulosum are especially good, but even wild onions such as Allium canadense and Allium validum are nice in small doses.

4. slangOf a drug, an ounce.
5. obsoleteslangball gamesA ball.
6. obsoleteslangA watch-seal.

   […] M was a Magsman, frequenting Pall-Mall; / N was a Nose that turned chirp on his pal; / O was an Onion, possessed by a swell; / P was a Pannie, done niblike and well. […]

   1846, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, page 60

7. Alternative letter-case form of Onion (“an inhabitant of Bermuda; a Bermudian”).
8. slang4chan slangSoy, particularly when used in compound words related to the soy boy stereotype.
9. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of flaming onion; anti-aircraft fire.

   Plenty kites came over after dark – we stood outside and watched flares, bombs, ack-ack, and onions on the third escarpment.

   1942, Colin Latham, Ann Stobbs, quoting Dick Field, Radar: A Wartime Miracle, Stroud: Sutton, published 1996, page 125

plural Onions · alternative onion

1. slangBermudaAn inhabitant of Bermuda; a Bermudian.