Turnip

Turnip (tûr"nip) , noun

[Old English turnep; probably from turn, or French tour a turn, turning lathe + Old English nepe a turnip, Anglo-Saxon nape, Latin napus. Compare Turn, transitive verb, Navew.]

(Botany) The edible, fleshy, roundish, or somewhat conical, root of a cruciferous plant (Brassica campestris, var. Napus); also, the plant itself.

Collocations (3)

Swedish turnip (Botany) , a kind of turnip. See Ruta-baga.

Turnip flea (Zoology) , a small flea-beetle (Haltica, striolata syn. 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 (Zoology) , (a) The turnip flea. (b) A two-winged fly (Anthomyia radicum) whose larvae live in the turnip root.