cherry

Definition

A small fruit, usually red, black or yellow, with a smooth hard seed and a short hard stem.

Etymology

From Middle English chery, cherie, chirie, from Anglo-Norman cherise (mistaken as a plural) and Old English ċiris, ċirse (“cherry”), from Proto-West Germanic *kirsijā, from Vulgar Latin ceresia, derived from Late Latin ceresium, cerasium, from Ancient Greek κεράσιον (kerásion, “cherry fruit”), from κερασός (kerasós, “bird cherry”), and ultimately possibly of Anatolian origin (the intervocalic σ suggests a pre-Greek origin for the word). Doublet of cerise, Giresun, and kirsch.

Example Sentences

• ""Well, Dangerfield, in less than an hour I'm off in search of my fortune. Jesus, I'm excited, like I was going to lose my cherry. Woke up this morning with an erection that almost touched the ceiling.""
• "Nothing stands in your way when you're a boy / Clothes always fit ya / Life is a pop of the cherry when you're a boy"
• "Philips—Sergeant Gerheim's black, silver-tongued House Mouse—is telling everybody about the one thousand cherries he has busted."