Turnip - Dictionary Definition and Overview

Turnip :  (noun)
1: widely cultivated plant having a large fleshy edible white or yellow root [syn: white turnip, Brassica rapa]
2: root of any of several members of the mustard family

Based on WordNet 2.0

Turnip : \Tur"nip\, n. [OE. turnep; probably fr. turn, or F. tour a turn, turning lathe _ OE. nepe a turnip, AS. n[=ae]pe, L. napus. Cf. Turn,v. t., Navew.] (Bot.) The edible, fleshy, roundish, or somewhat conical, root of a cruciferous plant ({Brassica campestris, var. Napus); also, the plant itself. [Formerly written also turnep.]

Swedish turnip (Bot.), a kind of turnip. See Ruta-baga. Turnip flea (Zo["o]l.), a small flea-beetle ({Haltica, or Phyllotreta, striolata), which feeds upon the turnip, and often seriously injures it. It is black with a stripe of yellow on each elytron. The name is also applied to several other small insects which are injurious to turnips. See Illust. under Flea-beetle.

Turnip fly. (Zo["o]l.) (a) The turnip flea. (b) A two-winged fly ({Anthomyia radicum) whose larv[ae] live in the turnip root.

Based on WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003)
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