potato

noun (plural potatoes)

• 1a starchy plant tuber which is one of the most important food crops, cooked and eaten as a vegetable:roast potatoes [mass noun]:mashed potato

• 2the plant of the nightshade family which produces potatoes on underground runners.

  • Solanum tuberosum, family Solanaceae. It was first cultivated in the Andes about 1,800 years ago and was introduced to Europe in circa 1570

• 3British informal a large hole in a sock or stocking, especially one in the heel.