Meaning

2 senses
  1. (countable, uncountable)Fruit that is normally eaten from the hand, such as apples or bananas.

  2. (countable, dated, uncountable)Fruit of a suitable variety, and of a good grade of condition, such that it is salable on the basis that it is appealing for immediate consumption; in a schema of table fruit, hand fruit, and preserving fruit, table fruit was a top grade, hand fruit was a good grade, and preserving fruit encompassed any combination of (1) varieties less suited to unpreserved consumption (such as by palatability when uncooked) and (2) lower-grade condition that needed more trimming and culling.

Forms

plural: hand fruits
Singularhand fruit
Pluralhand fruits

regular

Word family

2 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
hand fruit — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto