grapefruit

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The tree of the species Citrus paradisi, a hybrid of Citrus maxima and sweet orange.

   Results have begun to come in and at Comfort Castle this month I spent a useful and happy half day carting round 8 children in my car to their homes where we all helped to fill in with good soil and manure, their excellently dug holes and planted the grapefruit.

2. 2
   noun

   The large spherical tart fruit produced by this tree.

   Grapefruit is high in vitamin C. The pink and red varieties contain vitamin A (betacarotene) and lycopene, an antioxidant that may help prevent cancer. Grapefruit contains a chemical that can alter intestinal absorption of some medications and lead to higher than normal blood levels of some drugs and potential problems.

3. 3
   noun

   Large breasts; by extension, a woman with large breasts.

   Cupping her grapefruits in her hands, she closed her eyes and imagined her date grasping them, exploring their size, weight, and firmness.

4. 4
   noun

   large yellow fruit with somewhat acid juicy pulp

5. 5
   noun

   citrus tree bearing large round edible fruit having a thick yellow rind and juicy somewhat acid pulp

Etymology

Widely assumed to be a marketing term from grape + fruit, an allusion to the supposed grapelike clusters of fruit on the tree, early 19th c. Ciardi proposes another theory: one of the pomelo's botanical names is Citrus grandis, meaning "great citrus [fruit]", due to the size of its fruit. A new pomelo variety might first have been called a "greatfruit" (see greatfruit), and through the process of assimilation, the word came to be pronounced "grapefruit".