Nut
Nut (nut) , noun
[Old English nute, note, Anglo-Saxon hnutu; akin to Dutch noot, German nuss, Old High German nuz, Icelandic hnot, Swedish not, Danish nod.]
1.
(Botany) The fruit of certain trees and shrubs (as of the almond, walnut, hickory, beech, filbert, etc.), consisting of a hard and indehiscent shell inclosing a kernel.
2.
A perforated block (usually a small piece of metal), provided with an internal or female screw thread, used on a bolt, or screw, for tightening or holding something, or for transmitting motion. See Illust. of 1st Bolt.
3.
The tumbler of a gunlock. — Knight
4.
(Nautical) A projection on each side of the shank of an anchor, to secure the stock in place.
5.
Testicles. [vulgar slang]
Collocations (10)
Check nut or Jam nut or Lock nut , a nut which is screwed up tightly against another nut on the same bolt or screw, in order to prevent accidental unscrewing of the first nut.
Nut buoy , See under Buoy.
Nut coal , screened coal of a size smaller than stove coal and larger than pea coal; -- called also chestnut coal.
Nut crab (Zoology) , any leucosoid crab of the genus Ebalia as, Ebalia tuberosa of Europe.
Nut grass (Botany) , See nut grass in the vocabulary.
Nut lock , a device, as a metal plate bent up at the corners, to prevent a nut from becoming unscrewed, as by jarring.
Nut rush (Botany) , a genus of cyperaceous plants (Scleria) having a hard bony achene. Several species are found in the United States and many more in tropical regions.
Nut tree , a tree that bears nuts.
Nut weevil (Zoology) , any species of weevils of the genus Balaninus and other allied genera, which in the larval state live in nuts.
Nut , intransitive verb
To gather nuts.