onion

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.

   Some of the weeds that cause an undesirable flavor in milk are: onion, tarweed, scaleweed, garlic, mustard, pepper grass.

2. 2
   noun

   The bulb of such a plant.

   My eyes are stinging from the chopped onions.

3. 3
   noun

   Any of various plants, mostly of the genus Allium, that are more or less similar to Allium cepa.

   Many onions are delicious; domesticated onions such as Allium cepa and Allium fistulosum are especially good, but even wild onions such as Allium canadense and Allium validum are nice in small doses.

4. 4
   noun

   A watch-seal.

   […] M was a Magsman, frequenting Pall-Mall; / N was a Nose that turned chirp on his pal; / O was an Onion, possessed by a swell; / P was a Pannie, done niblike and well. […]

5. 5
   noun

   an aromatic flavorful vegetable

6. 6
   noun

   bulbous plant having hollow leaves cultivated worldwide for its rounded edible bulb

7. 7
   noun

   the bulb of an onion plant

8. 8
   noun

   Of a drug, an ounce.

Etymology

From Middle English onyoun, oynoun, from Old French oignon, from Latin ūniōnem, accusative of ūniō (“onion”), which had also been borrowed into Old English as yne, ynnelēac (“onion”) (> Middle English hynne-leac, henne-leac). Also displaced Middle English knelek (literally “knee-leek”) and the inherited term ramsons. * (soy): Stems from a 4chan word filter which changes the word soy to onions. The word filter was implemented in relation to the "alpha onion eater" meme, which is depicted as the direct opposite of the soy boy.