- (also especially North American English, informal veggie)a plant or part of a plant that is eaten as food. Potatoes, beans and onions are all vegetables.
- The children don't eat enough fresh vegetables.
- root vegetables (= for example carrots)
- a vegetable garden
- We grow our own vegetables.
- a salad of raw vegetables
- organic vegetables
- a vegetable patch/plot
- vegetable soup
- vegetable matter (= plants in general)
- (offensive) an offensive word for a person who is physically alive but not capable of much mental or physical activity, for example because of a serious accident or illness
- a person who has a boring life
- Since losing my job I've been a vegetable.
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘growing as a plant’): from Old French, or from late Latin vegetabilis ‘animating’, from Latin vegetare, from vegetus ‘active’, from vegere ‘be active’. The current sense dates from the late 16th cent.
Check pronunciation:
vegetable