Dictionary
water chestnut
noun
: the white root of a plant that grows in water and that is often used in Chinese cooking
Full Definition of WATER CHESTNUT
1
: any of a genus (Trapa, especially T. natans of the family Trapaceae, the water-chestnut family) of Old World aquatic herbs sometimes grown as ornamentals; also : its edible nutlike spiny fruit
2
: a whitish crunchy vegetable used especially in Chinese cooking that is the peeled and often sliced tuber of a sedge (Eleocharis dulcis syn. E. tuberosa) native to Asia but widely cultivated elsewhere; also : the tuber or the sedge itself
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First Known Use of WATER CHESTNUT
1847
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