DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Oys·ter n.
 1. Zool. Any marine bivalve mollusk of the genus Ostrea. They are usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers. The common European oyster (Ostrea edulis), and the American oyster (Ostrea Virginiana), are the most important species.
 2. A name popularly given to the delicate morsel contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl.
 Fresh-water oyster Zool., any species of the genus Etheria, and allied genera, found in rivers of Africa and South America.  They are irregular in form, and attach themselves to rocks like oysters, but they have a pearly interior, and are allied to the fresh-water mussels.
 Oyster bed, a breeding place for oysters; a place in a tidal river or other water on or near the seashore, where oysters are deposited to grow and fatten for market. See 1st Scalp, n.
 Oyster catcher Zool., See oystercatcher in the vocabulary.
 Oyster crab Zool. a small crab (Pinnotheres ostreum) which lives as a commensal in the gill cavity of the oyster.
 Oyster dredge, a rake or small dragnet for bringing up oysters from the bottom of the sea.
 Oyster fish. Zool. (a) The tautog. (b) The toadfish.
 Oyster plant. Bot. (a) A plant of the genus Tragopogon (Tragopogon porrifolius), the root of which, when cooked, somewhat resembles the oyster in taste; salsify; -- called also vegetable oyster. (b) A plant found on the seacoast of Northern Europe, America and Asia (Mertensia maritima), the fresh leaves of which have a strong flavor of oysters.
 Oyster plover. Zool. Same as oystercatcher.
 Oyster shell Zool., the shell of an oyster.
 Oyster wench, Oyster wife, Oyster women, a women who deals in oysters.
 Pearl oyster. Zool. See under Pearl.
 Thorny oyster Zool., any spiny marine shell of the genus Spondylus.
 ◄ ►

 Veg·e·ta·ble a.
 1. Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable growths, juices, etc.
 Blooming ambrosial fruit
 Of vegetable gold.   --Milton.
 2. Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable kingdom.
 Vegetable alkali Chem., an alkaloid.
 Vegetable brimstone. Bot. See Vegetable sulphur, below.
 Vegetable butter Bot., a name of several kinds of concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian butter tree, the African shea tree, and the Pentadesma butyracea, a tree of the order Guttiferae, also African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of cocoa (Theobroma).
 Vegetable flannel, a textile material, manufactured in Germany from pine-needle wool, a down or fiber obtained from the leaves of the Pinus sylvestris.
 Vegetable ivory. See Ivory nut, under Ivory.
 Vegetable jelly. See Pectin.
 Vegetable kingdom. Nat. Hist. See the last Phrase, below.
 Vegetable leather. (a) Bot. A shrubby West Indian spurge (Euphorbia punicea), with leathery foliage and crimson bracts. (b) See Vegetable leather, under Leather.
 Vegetable marrow Bot., an egg-shaped gourd, commonly eight to ten inches long.  It is noted for the very tender quality of its flesh, and is a favorite culinary vegetable in England.  It has been said to be of Persian origin, but is now thought to have been derived from a form of the American pumpkin.
 Vegetable oyster Bot., the oyster plant. See under Oyster.
 Vegetable parchment, papyrine.
 Vegetable sheep Bot., a white woolly plant (Raoulia eximia) of New Zealand, which grows in the form of large fleecy cushions on the mountains.
 Vegetable silk, a cottonlike, fibrous material obtained from the coating of the seeds of a Brazilian tree (Chorisia speciosa).  It is used for various purposes, as for stuffing cushions, and the like, but is incapable of being spun on account of a want of cohesion among the fibers.
 Vegetable sponge. See 1st Loof.
 Vegetable sulphur, the fine and highly inflammable spores of the club moss (Lycopodium clavatum); witch meal.
 Vegetable tallow, a substance resembling tallow, obtained from various plants; as, Chinese vegetable tallow, obtained from the seeds of the tallow tree. Indian vegetable tallow is a name sometimes given to piney tallow.
 Vegetable wax, a waxy excretion on the leaves or fruits of certain plants, as the bayberry.
 Vegetable kingdom Nat. Hist., that primary division of living things which includes all plants. The classes of the vegetable kingdom have been grouped differently by various botanists. The following is one of the best of the many arrangements of the principal subdivisions.
 I. Phaenogamia (called also Phanerogamia). Plants having distinct flowers and true seeds. { 1. Dicotyledons (called also Exogens). -- Seeds with two or more cotyledons.  Stems with the pith, woody fiber, and bark concentrically arranged.  Divided into two subclasses: Angiosperms, having the woody fiber interspersed with dotted or annular ducts, and the seeds contained in a true ovary; Gymnosperms, having few or no ducts in the woody fiber, and the seeds naked.  2. Monocotyledons (called also Endogens). -- Seeds with single cotyledon. Stems with slender bundles of woody fiber not concentrically arranged, and with no true bark.}
 II. Cryptogamia. Plants without true flowers, and reproduced by minute spores of various kinds, or by simple cell division. { 1. Acrogens. -- Plants usually with distinct stems and leaves, existing in two alternate conditions, one of which is nonsexual and sporophoric, the other sexual and oophoric.  Divided into Vascular Acrogens, or Pteridophyta, having the sporophoric plant conspicuous and consisting partly of vascular tissue, as in Ferns, Lycopods, and Equiseta, and Cellular Acrogens, or Bryophyta, having the sexual plant most conspicuous, but destitute of vascular tissue, as in Mosses and Scale Mosses. 2. Thallogens. -- Plants without distinct stem and leaves, consisting of a simple or branched mass of cellular tissue, or reduced to a single cell.  Reproduction effected variously. Divided into Algae, which contain chlorophyll or its equivalent, and which live upon air and water, and Fungi, which contain no chlorophyll, and live on organic matter. (Lichens are now believed to be fungi parasitic on included algae.}
 Note: ☞ Many botanists divide the Phaenogamia primarily into Gymnosperms and Angiosperms, and the latter into Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. Others consider Pteridophyta and Bryophyta to be separate classes. Thallogens are variously divided by different writers, and the places for diatoms, slime molds, and stoneworts are altogether uncertain.
    For definitions, see these names in the Vocabulary.

 vegetable oyster
      n 1: Mediterranean biennial herb with long-stemmed heads of
           purple ray flowers and milky sap and long edible root;
           naturalized throughout United States [syn: salsify, oyster
           plant, Tragopogon porrifolius]
      2: long white-skinned salsify [syn: oyster plant]