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the typically ovoid fruit or nut of an oak, enclosed at the base by a cupule.
a finial or knop, as on a piece of furniture, in the form of an acorn.
Contemporary Examples

The right-wing explanation for this is that the media kept making excuses for Obama, and that acorn stole the election anyway.
Michael Tomasky on the Right’s Delusions About the Derrick Bell Video Michael Tomasky March 8, 2012

I have nothing to do with acorn— Yeah, what were the facts on that?
The Purged Moderate Speaks Michael Smerconish November 4, 2009

This was beside the point, Breitbart argued, because acorn was “caught red-handed.”
Andrew Breitbart Dies: Most Controversial Moments (Video) The Daily Beast February 29, 2012

Perhaps nowhere has an acorn spin-off been as successful as one has in New York City.
ACORN’s Seeds Sprout Up Across the Country David Freedlander January 12, 2014

acorn is just the latest example of how conservative media love to blast The New York Times for its shortcomings.
The Right’s Lesser Press Conor Friedersdorf October 3, 2009

Historical Examples

There is another kind of chesnuts, which are called the acorn chesnuts, as they are shaped like an acorn, and grow in such a cup.
The History of Louisiana Le Page Du Pratz

Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fulness and completion?
Essays, First Series Ralph Waldo Emerson

“acorn Island is just the finest kind of a place for a camp,” said the enthusiastic Jess.
The Girls of Central High in Camp Gertrude W. Morrison

In another variant it is an acorn which is sown under the floor.
Russian Fairy Tales W. R. S. Ralston

Little Mr Field Mouse ran to the root and poked his nose under after the acorn, and there he saw a small round hole in the ground.
Stories to Tell Children Sara Cone Bryant

noun
the fruit of an oak tree, consisting of a smooth thick-walled nut in a woody scaly cuplike base
n.

Old English æcern “nut,” common Germanic (cf. Old Norse akarn, Dutch aker, Low German ecker “acorn,” German Ecker, Gothic akran “fruit”), originally the mast of any forest tree, and ultimately related (via notion of “fruit of the open or unenclosed land”) to Old English æcer “open land,” Gothic akrs “field,” Old French aigrun “fruits and vegetables” (from a Germanic source); see acre.

The sense gradually restricted in Low German, Scandinavian, and English to the most important of the forest produce for feeding swine, the mast of the oak tree. Spelling changed 15c.-16c. by folk etymology association with oak (Old English ac) and corn (n.1).