rutabaga

plural rutabagas · alternative ruta-baga

1. CanadaUSuncountableusuallyThe swede, or Swedish turnip; the European plant Brassica napus var. napobrassica

   They were both too hungry to wait for the yams and rutabagas to bake, so tonight they would have the frozen White Castle minicheeseburgers that Mr. Van Buren had won a year's supply of just before he passed away.

   2007, James Wilcox, Hunk City

2. CanadaUSuncountableusuallyThe edible root of this plant

   American kids ate very odd things in the 19th century. Spicy sauces and vinegary pickles. Shellfish and organ meats. Beets, rutabagas, collards.

   2026 February 15, Helen Zoe Veit, “There’s a Reason American Kids Are Such Picky Eaters”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   Sometimes your royal dogs tear down our thatch, And then we seek the shelter of a ditch; Hog-wash or grains, or ruta-baga, none Has yet been ours since your reign begun.

   1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts

   Chipper […] understood how his entire dinner might be scarfabl' in no time, his duties discharged and his freedom regained, and he actually picked up his fork and made a pass at the craggy wad of rutabaga […]

   2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections