cherry

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).^[1] Doublet of cerise, Giresun, and kirsch.

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/

  • Audio (UK):

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  • Audio (US):

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• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃeɹi/

  • Audio (General Australian):

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• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɛɾe/, /-ɾɪ/, /-ɾi/
• (Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɛɾi/
• Rhymes: -ɛɹi

cherry (plural cherries)

2. A small fruit, usually red, black or yellow, with a smooth hard seed and a short hard stem.
3. Prunus subg. Cerasus, trees or shrubs that bear cherries.
4. The wood of a cherry tree.
5. Cherry red.
6. The fruit of the coffee plant, containing the seeds or beans.
7. (slang) Virginity, especially female virginity as embodied by a hymen.
   • 1965 [1955], J. P. Donleavy, The Ginger Man, New York: Delacorte Press, page 39:

     "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."

   • 1979, David Bowie, Brian Eno, “Boys Keep Swinging”, in Lodger, performed by David Bowie:

     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

   • 1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 20:

     Philips—Sergeant Gerheim's black, silver-tongued House Mouse—is telling everybody about the one thousand cherries he has busted.

   • 1986, “Short Side (Blow Job Betty)” (track 5, 6:36–6:43 from the start), in Too Short (lyrics), Raw, Uncut and X-Rated:

     So what bitch, I busted your cherry – / Hell fucking no, I don’t wanna git married

8. (graph theory) A subtree consisting of a node with exactly two leaves.
   • 2004, Suleyman Cenk Sahinalp, S Muthukrishnan, Ugur Dogrusoz, Combinatorial Pattern Matching, Berlin […] : Springer-Verlag, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 210:

     Non-isomorphism is detected whenever the algorithm finds a cherry ${\displaystyle v_{1}\in T_{1}}$

   • 2005, Lior Pachter, Bernd Sturmfels, Algebraic Statistics for Computational Biology, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 74:

     Step 3: Output the tree T. The edge lengths of T are determined recursively: If (x,y) is a cherry connected to node z as in Step 2

9. (cricket, slang) A red cricket ball.
   • 2000, Woorkheri Raman, “Indians adopt safety first tactics”, in ESPNcricinfo‎^[2], archived from the original on 7 July 2022, retrieved 25 November 2024:

     The Indians have to get early wickets on the morrow and they will have the option of taking the new cherry.

   • 2007, Ben Dirs, “England v West Indies 1st Test”, in BBC Sport‎^[3], archived from the original on 9 April 2016, retrieved 25 November 2024:

     Players are back out and it's Harmison to have first go with the cherry.

10. (cricket, slang) A reddish mark left on the bat by the impact of the ball.
11. A round, red light of the kind that is typically mounted on top of a police car.

    Synonym: cherrytop

    • 2009, Sandra Brown, Smash Cut, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 249:

      "What do you think?" he asked as he wove through traffic, matching Sanford's speed but without the benefit of a flashing cherry on the roof of his car.

    • 2011, Rick Mofina, In Desperation, Don Mills, Ontario: MIRA, →ISBN, page 44:

      “This is a cartel operation,” Hackett said as Larson activated the dash-mounted cherry

12. The burning tip of a cigarette.
    • 1991, Douglas Coupland, “Celebrities Die”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 115:

      I'm horrified: Dag is burning holes in the roof of the car with the cherry of his cigarette.

13. (euphemistic, slang) A woman’s breasts.

• The cherry includes, but is not limited to, the following species, of the genus Prunus: Prunus avium (wild cherry, mazzard, sweet cherry), P. cerasus (sour cherry), Prunus mahaleb (mahaleb cherry, rock cherry), P. pensylvanica (pin cherry, bird cherry), P. pumila (sand cherry), P. serotina (black cherry), P. serrulata (Japanese flowering cherry, hill cherry), and P. virginiana (chokecherry). Prunus also includes plums, peaches, apricots, and almonds.

• (fruit): fruit
• (tree): tree, plant

• gean

cherry (comparative cherrier or more cherry, superlative cherriest or most cherry)

1. Containing or having the taste of cherries.
2. Of a bright red color; cherry red.

   cherry:  

3. (informal, often of cars) In excellent condition; mint condition.
   • 2003, John Morgan Wilson, Blind Eye, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 108:

     A few years earlier, I’d restored my ’65 Mustang convertible to cherry condition—fire engine red, with matching tuck-and-roll—and I wasn’t surprised that it drew attention.

   • 2006, “White & Nerdy”, in "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics), Straight Outta Lynwood, performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic:

     All of my action figures are cherry

• cerise

cherry (third-person singular simple present cherries, present participle cherrying, simple past and past participle cherried)

1. (transitive, dated, obsolete) To redden; to infuse a cherrylike color to something.
2. (transitive, dated, obsolete) To cheer, to delight.

From English cherry.

• IPA^(key): /ʃɛ.ʁi/ ~ /ʃe.ʁi/, /tʃɛ.ʁi/ ~ /tʃe.ʁi/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

cherry m (plural cherrys or cherries)

1. cherry brandy

• “cherry”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃeri/ [ˈt͡ʃe.ri]
• Rhymes: -eri
• Syllabification: che‧rry

cherry m (plural cherrys or cherries)

1. cherry tomato