Pear
Pear (pâr) , noun
[Old English pere, Anglo-Saxon peru, Latin pirum: compare French poire. Compare Perry.]
(Botany) The fleshy pome, or fruit, of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus communis), cultivated in many varieties in temperate climates; also, the tree which bears this fruit. See Pear family, below.
Collocations (5)
Pear blight (Botany) , A name of two distinct diseases of pear trees, both causing a destruction of the branches, namely, that caused by a minute insect (Xyleborus pyri), and that caused by the freezing of the sap in winter. — A. J. Downing A very small beetle (Xyleborus pyri) whose larva bore in the twigs of pear trees and cause them to wither.
Pear family (Botany) , a suborder of rosaceous plants (Pomea), characterized by the calyx tube becoming fleshy in fruit, and, combined with the ovaries, forming a pome. It includes the apple, pear, quince, service berry, and hawthorn.
Pear gauge (Physics) , a kind of gauge for measuring the exhaustion of an air-pump receiver; -- so called because consisting in part of a pear-shaped glass vessel.
Pear shell (Zoology) , any marine gastropod shell of the genus Pyrula, native of tropical seas; -- so called from the shape.
Pear slug (Zoology) , the larva of a sawfly which is very injurious to the foliage of the pear tree.