tomato

noun (plural tomatoes)

• 1a glossy red, or occasionally yellow, pulpy edible fruit which is eaten as a vegetable or in salad.
• [mass noun] the bright red colour of a ripe tomato: she got into the tomato Mini and drove away [as modifier]:a tomato red sweatshirt

• 2the South American plant of the nightshade family which produces the tomato. It is widely grown as a cash crop and many varieties have been developed.

  • Lycopersicon esculentum, family Solanaceae