lemon
pronunciation
How to pronounce lemon in British English:
UK [ˈlemən]
How to pronounce lemon in American English:
US [ˈlemən]
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- Noun:
- yellow oval fruit with juicy acidic flesh
- a strong yellow color
- a small evergreen tree that originated in Asia but is widely cultivated for its fruit
- a distinctive tart flavor characteristic of lemons
- an artifact (especially an automobile) that is defective or unsatisfactory
Word Origin
- lemon
- lemon: see lime
- lemon (n.1)
- type of citrus fruit, c. 1400, lymon, from Old French limon "citrus fruit" (12c.), via Provençal or Italian from Arabic laimun, from Persian limu(n), generic terms for citrus fruits (compare lime (n.2)); cognate with Sanskrit nimbu "the lime." Slang meaning "a Quaalude" is 1960s, from Lemmon, name of a pharmaceutical company that once manufactured the drug.
- lemon (n.2)
- "worthless thing," 1909, American English slang; from lemon (n.1), perhaps via criminal slang sense of "a person who is a loser, a simpleton," which is perhaps from the notion of someone a sharper can "suck the juice out of." A pool hall hustle was called a lemon game (1908); while to hand someone a lemon was British slang (1906) for "to pass off a sub-standard article as a good one." Or it simply may be a metaphor for something which leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.
Synonym
Example
- 1. You need to squeeze the lemon onto the salad .
- 2. Does lemon juice really boost metabolism ?
- 3. The lemon juice is called electrolyte .
- 4. I plucked a lemon from the tree .
- 5. And I practically live at astoria lemon ice .