PLUM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does plum mean? 

• PLUM (noun)
  The noun PLUM has 3 senses:

1. any of several trees producing edible oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single hard stone

2. any of numerous varieties of small to medium-sized round or oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single pit

3. a highly desirable position or assignment

  Familiarity information: PLUM used as a noun is uncommon.

• PLUM (adverb)
  The adverb PLUM has 2 senses:

1. exactly

2. completely; used as intensifiers

  Familiarity information: PLUM used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of several trees producing edible oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single hard stone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

plum; plum tree

Hypernyms ("plum" is a kind of...):

fruit tree (tree bearing edible fruit)

Meronyms (parts of "plum"):

plum (any of numerous varieties of small to medium-sized round or oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single pit)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plum"):

wild plum; wild plum tree (an uncultivated plum tree or shrub)

common plum; Prunus domestica (any of various widely distributed plums grown in the cooler temperate areas)

bullace; Prunus insititia (small wild or half-domesticated Eurasian plum bearing small ovoid fruit in clusters)

big-tree plum; Prunus mexicana (small tree of southwestern United States having purplish-red fruit sometimes cultivated as an ornamental for its large leaves)

Canada plum; Prunus nigra (small tree native to northeastern North America having oblong orange-red fruit)

cherry plum; myrobalan; myrobalan plum; Prunus cerasifera (small Asiatic tree bearing edible red or yellow fruit)

Japanese plum; Prunus salicina (small tree of China and Japan bearing large yellow to red plums usually somewhat inferior to European plums in flavor)

Pacific plum; Prunus subcordata; Sierra plum (shrub of the Pacific coast of the United States bearing small red insipid fruit)

Holonyms ("plum" is a member of...):

genus Prunus; Prunus (a genus of shrubs and trees of the family Rosaceae that is widely distributed in temperate regions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of numerous varieties of small to medium-sized round or oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single pit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("plum" is a kind of...):

edible fruit (edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh)

drupe; stone fruit (fleshy indehiscent fruit with a single seed: e.g. almond; peach; plum; cherry; elderberry; olive; jujube)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plum"):

damson; damson plum (dark purple plum of the damson tree)

greengage; greengage plum (sweet green or greenish-yellow variety of plum)

beach plum (small dark purple fruit used especially in jams and pies)

sloe (small sour dark purple fruit of especially the Allegheny plum bush)

Victoria plum (a large red plum served as dessert)

Holonyms ("plum" is a part of...):

plum; plum tree (any of several trees producing edible oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single hard stone)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A highly desirable position or assignment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

a political plum

Hypernyms ("plum" is a kind of...):

berth; billet; office; place; position; post; situation; spot (a job in an organization)

• PLUM (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Exactly

Synonyms:

plum; plumb

Context example:

fell plumb in the middle of the puddle

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Completely; used as intensifiers

Synonyms:

clean; plum; plumb

Context example:

I'm plumb (or plum) tuckered out

Domain usage:

argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular (a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves))

 Context examples 

Next instant, with a loud shout of triumph he held up one splinter, in which a round, dark object was fixed like a plum in a pudding.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His cote-hardie, or tunic, and trunk-hosen were of a purple plum color, with long weepers which hung from either sleeve to below his knees.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So was the plum pudding, which melted in one's mouth, likewise the jellies, in which Amy reveled like a fly in a honeypot.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Our little party of travelers awakened the next morning refreshed and full of hope, and Dorothy breakfasted like a princess off peaches and plums from the trees beside the river.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

There was everywhere a bewildering mass of fruit blossom—apple, plum, pear, cherry; and as we drove by I could see the green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen petals.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

She was seated in her mother's lap, covered with kisses, her wound bathed with lavender-water, by one of the Miss Steeles, who was on her knees to attend her, and her mouth stuffed with sugar plums by the other.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

To us it seems but an affair of yesterday, and yet those children can now reach the plums in the garden whilst we are seeking for a ladder, and where we once walked with their little hands in ours, we are glad now to lean upon their arms.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But no—eventide is as pleasant to him as to me, and this antique garden as attractive; and he strolls on, now lifting the gooseberry-tree branches to look at the fruit, large as plums, with which they are laden; now taking a ripe cherry from the wall; now stooping towards a knot of flowers, either to inhale their fragrance or to admire the dew-beads on their petals.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

His life is a mystery to the partner of his joys and sorrows—I again allude to his wife—and if I should assure you that beyond knowing that it is passed from morning to night at the office, I now know less of it than I do of the man in the south, connected with whose mouth the thoughtless children repeat an idle tale respecting cold plum porridge, I should adopt a popular fallacy to express an actual fact.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was a sort of poetic justice about it, after all, for the old lady had been the terror of the boys for miles around, and now the exiles feasted freely on forbidden plums, kicked up the gravel with profane boots unreproved, and played cricket in the big field where the irritable 'cow with a crumpled horn' used to invite rash youths to come and be tossed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)