pomegranate

plural pomegranates

1. The fruit of the Punica granatum, about the size of an orange with a thick, hard, reddish skin enclosing many seeds, each with an edible pink or red pulp tasting both sweet and tart.

   The pomegranate is a subtropical fruit about the size of a large apple.

   2006, Wayne Gisslen, Professional Cooking, College Version, page 683

   5 more examples

   Here the blue fig with luſcious juice o'erflows, / With deeper red the full pomegranate glows, / The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear, / And verdant olives flouriſh round the year.

   1725, Homer, “Book VII”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 106, lines 148–151

   In the walls of the cells, elevated on seven steps of Parian marble, various statutes stood in niches, and those walls were ornamented with the pomegranate consecrated to Isis.

   1834, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Temple of Isis.—Its Priest.—The Character of Arbaces Developes Itself.”, in The Last Days of Pompeii. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […]; successor to Henry Colburn, →OCLC, book I, page 68

   Another goblet! quick! and stir / Pomegranate juice and drops of myrrh / And calamus therein!

   1851, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Golden Legend, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 147

   The seeds of the pomegranate, for example, were widely used to prevent conception in the ancient world and they are still used in India, East Africa, and the Pacific.

   2001, Vern L. Bullough, editor, Herbal Contraceptives and Abortifacients: Encyclopedia of Birth Control, page 125

   Persephone is taken to the underworld by Hades to be his queen. She willingly eats a seed of pomegranate and is forced to spend every winter with her husband in the land of the dead, symbolizing the yearly decay and revival of vegetation. […] In Judaism, the number of seeds in a pomegranate is said to be the exact number of mitzvah, or spiritual duties required of a devout Jew.

   2005, Payam Nabarz, The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World, page 79

2. The shrub or small tree that bears the fruit.

   The pomegranate is the tree of knowledge in some myths. In others, it is linked with the underworld,[…].

   2005, Payam Nabarz, The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World, page 79

   4 more examples

   I finish'd this day with a walke in the greate garden of the Thuilleries, which is rarely contrived for privacy, shade, or company, by groves, plantations of tall trees, especialy that in yᵉ middle, being of elmes, another of mulberys. There is a labyrinth of cypresse, noble hedges of pomegranates, fountaines, fishponds, and an aviary.

   1644 February 17 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 8 February 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 41

   On her fair cheek’s unfading hue, / The young pomegranate’s blossoms strew / Their bloom in blushes ever new— […]

   1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, London: […] T[homas] Davison, […], for John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 13

   The pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) originates from Persia, and is cultivated in western and central Asia and in the Mediterranean region; it is also grown commercially in California. […] The predominant parasitic nematodes affecting pomegranate are the root knot nematodes, M.^([Meloidogyne]) incognita, M. acrita and M. javanica (McSorley, 1981).

   2005, Fahiem E. El-Borai, Larry W. Duncan, “12: Nematode Parasites of Subtropical and Tropical Fruit Tree Crops”, in M. Luc, Richard A. Sikora, J. Bridge, editors, Plant Parasitic Nematodes in Subtropical and Tropical Agriculture, 2nd edition, page 481

   In this experiment, the average Zn concentration of leaf in four pomegranate cultivars was between 12.0 and 19.8mg/kg in the control (Fig. 2a).

   2008, M. N. V. Prasad, Trace Elements as Contaminants and Nutrients, page 225

3. A dark red or orange-red colour, like that of the pulp or skin of a pomegranate fruit.

   Sally at last appeared, all in a flutter of ribbons and scarfs, whose bright, high colors assorted well with the ultramarine blue of her dress, and the vivid pomegranate hue of her cheeks.

   1861, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Pearl of Orr's Island

4. AustraliacolloquialderogatoryobsoleteA person of British descent, especially one who has (recently) immigrated to Australia; a pom, a pommy.

comparative more pomegranate · superlative most pomegranate

1. Of a colour like that of the pulp or skin of a pomegranate fruit; dark red or orange-red.

   Many people would think Miss Wilcox, standing there in her blue merino dress and pomegranate ribbon, a very agreeable woman.

   c. 1855, Charlotte Brontë, “Emma. (A Fragment of a Story by the Late Charlotte Brontë.)”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume I, number 4, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published April 1860, →OCLC, chapter II, pages 494–495