fruit

(botany) A product of fertilization in a plant, specifically:

The seed-bearing part of a plant; often edible, colourful, fragrant, and sweet or sour; produced from a floral ovary after fertilization.

The spores of cryptogams and their accessory organs.

[A]fter the flower is past commeth the fruit in long pods, every seede bunching out like the pods of Orobus and as bigge almost as the smaller Pease.

1640, John Parkinson, Theatrum botanicum: the Theater of Plants; or, An Herball of a Large Extent, London, page 1063:

Any sweet or sour, edible part of a plant that resembles seed-bearing fruit (see former sense) even if it does not develop from a floral ovary.

A sweet or sweetish vegetable, such as the petioles of rhubarb, that resembles a true fruit or is used in cookery as if it was a fruit.

His long nights in the office eventually bore fruit when his business boomed and he was given a raise.

the fruit of rashness

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

They shall eat the fruit of their doings.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 3:10:

The fruits of this education became visible.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 20, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

It is incontestably the case that future generations enjoyed the extraordinary fruits of the Industrial Revolution’s “great enrichment”.

2019 July 11, John Thornhill, “Does tech threaten to rerun the worst of the Industrial Revolution?”, in Financial Times:

An end result, effect, or consequence; advantageous or disadvantageous result.

fresh-squeezed fruit juice

a fruit salad

an artificial fruit flavor

a fruit tree

(attributive) Of, belonging to, related to, or having fruit or its characteristics; (of living things) producing or consuming fruit.

"Moishe just checked in," he said. "He's a panhandler and a fruit. A disgrace to the Jewish race."

1977 [1953], William S. Burroughs, edited by Allen Ginsberg, Junky, Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 66:

I'm not talking to this twisted fruit anymore!

1984, This is Spinal Tap, spoken by Ian Faith (Tony Hendra):

Aww, but he's so cute! / He's a fruit… Oh my fucking god! You will not believe who was here today!

1997, Daniel Clowes, “Garage Sale”, in Ghost World, Jonathan Cape, published 2000, →ISBN, page 15:

(dated, colloquial, derogatory) A homosexual man; (derogatory, figurative) an effeminate man.

The litter was the fruit of the union between our whippet and their terrier.

King Edward's fruit, true heir to the English crown

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

And she spake out with a loud voyce, and saide, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruite of thy wombe.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 1:42:

(archaic) Offspring from a sexual union.

en-noun

fruit (countable and uncountable, plural fruits)

Bislama: frut

Jamaican Creole: fruut

Tok Pisin: frut

→ Japanese: フルーツ (furūtsu)

fryt

figuratively: positive end result or reward of labour or effort

شَاذّ جِنْسِيًّا

offensive slang: homosexual or effeminate man

Etymology tree
Latin frūctus
Old French fruitbor.
Middle English fruyt
English fruit
From Middle English fruyt, frut (“fruits and vegetables”), from Old French fruit (“produce, fruits and vegetables”), from Latin frūctus (“enjoyment, proceeds, profits, produce, income”) and frūx (“crop, produce, fruit”) (compare Latin fruor (“have the benefit of, to use, to enjoy”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰruHg- (“to make use of, to have enjoyment of”). Cognate with English brook (“to bear, tolerate”) and German brauchen (“to need”). Displaced native Old English wæstm.


fruit

It may be said, however, that the percentage of green apples among the Fameuse seedlings is much less than among the others as out of 33 Fameuse seedlings which had fruited up to this year, none was green and we recollect but one light coloured Fameuse seedling fruiting this year.

1910, Canada Experimental Farms Service, Report of the Dominion Experimental Farms:

For example, chanterelles and russulas can start fruiting in early to mid summer given sufficient moisture, but other species, such as matsutake, rarely fruit until temperatures cool in the autumn, even if moisture is available earlier.

1998, Randy Molina, David Pilz, Managing Forest Ecosystems to Conserve Fungus Diversity and Sustain Wild Mushroom Harvests, →ISBN, page 10:

The grass and weeds come up to my waist and the plum trees are already fruiting up, though most of the fruit'll go to the wasps and the worms, Vinny says, 'cause he can't be arsed to pick it.

2014, David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, →ISBN, page 12:

en-verb

fruit (third-person singular simple present fruits, present participle fruiting, simple past and past participle fruited)

fruits (present singular third-person)
fruiting (participle present)
fruited (participle past)
fruited (past)