DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Pear n.  Bot. 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.
 Pear blight. (a) Bot. A name of two distinct diseases of pear trees, both causing a destruction of the branches, viz., that caused by a minute insect (Xyleborus pyri), and that caused by the freezing of the sap in winter. --A. J. Downing. (b) Zool. A very small beetle (Xyleborus pyri) whose larvæ bore in the twigs of pear trees and cause them to wither.
 Pear family Bot., a suborder of rosaceous plants (Pomeæ), 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 Zool., any marine gastropod shell of the genus Pyrula, native of tropical seas; -- so called from the shape.
 Pear slug Zool., the larva of a sawfly which is very injurious to the foliage of the pear tree.
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