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| pep·per [ péppər ] |
noun (plural pep·pers) |
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| Definition: |
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1. seasoning: a hot condiment or seasoning made from the ground dried berries of a tropical climbing plant. Black pepper is made from berries that are dried before they ripen, and white pepper from berries that ripen before being dried.
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2. plant with berries: a tropical climbing plant whose berries are dried for use as pepper, e.g. betel, cubeb, or kava. Genus Piper.
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3. hollow vegetable: a green, red, purple, or yellow fruit that is hollow with firm walls containing seeds and has mild or pungent flesh that can be eaten either raw or cooked as a vegetable
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4. plant with edible pods: a tropical plant of the nightshade family that produces mild or pungent peppers. Genus Capsicum.
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5. pungent condiments: condiments such as chili sauce or cayenne pepper made from the more strongly pungent peppers
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6. U.S. baseball baseball warm-up routine: a baseball warm-up routine with fielders standing close to the batter and quickly tossing the ball to the batter, who in turn hits each toss back to the fielders
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verb (past and past participle pep·pered, present participle pep·per·ing, 3rd person present singular pep·pers) |
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| Definition: |
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1. transitive verb sprinkle food with pepper: to add or sprinkle pepper as a seasoning onto something
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2. transitive verb assail somebody or something: to bombard somebody or something with something
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3. sprinkle something around: to scatter things liberally onto or among something
(
often passive
)
  manuscripts peppered with typing errors
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4. transitive verb make something lively: to liven up something, e.g. a speech with wit
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| [ Old English piper, via W Germanic < Latin piper< Greek peperi< Sanskrit pippalī "berry, peppercorn"] |
