vegetable: Meaning and Definition of

veg•e•ta•ble

1. any plant whose fruit, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, or flower parts are used as food, as the tomato, bean, beet, potato, onion, asparagus, spinach, or cauliflower.
2. the edible part of such a plant, as the tuber of the potato.
3. any member of the vegetable kingdom; plant.
4. a person who is so severely impaired mentally or physically as to be largely incapable of conscious responses or activity.
5. a dull, spiritless, and uninteresting person.

1. of, consisting of, or made from edible vegetables: a vegetable diet.
2. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of plants: the vegetable kingdom.
3. derived from plants: vegetable fiber; vegetable oils.
4. consisting of, comprising, or containing the substance or remains of plants: vegetable matter; a vegetable organism.
5. of the nature of or resembling a plant: the vegetable forms of Art Nouveau ornament.
6. inactive; inert; dull; uneventful: a vegetable existence.