water chestnut

water chestnut

noun

Definition of WATER CHESTNUT

1

: any of a genus (Trapa, especially T. natans of the family Trapaceae, the water-chestnut family) of Old World aquatic herbs sometimes grown as ornamentals; also : its edible nutlike spiny fruit

2

: a whitish crunchy vegetable used especially in Chinese cooking that is the peeled and often sliced tuber of a sedge (Eleocharis dulcis syn. E. tuberosa) native to Asia but widely cultivated elsewhere; also : the tuber or the sedge itself

First Known Use of WATER CHESTNUT

1847