Cauliflower
a form of cultivated plant, Brassica oleracea botrytis, of the mustard family, whose inflorescence forms a compact, usually whitish head.
Compare broccoli.
this head, used as a vegetable.
Contemporary Examples
Historical Examples
noun
a variety of cabbage, Brassica oleracea botrytis, having a large edible head of crowded white flowers on a very short thick stem
the flower head of this plant, used as a vegetable
n.
1590s, originally cole florye, from Italian cavoli fiori “flowered cabbage,” plural of cavolo “cabbage” + fiore “flower” (from Latin flora; see flora).
First element is from Latin caulis “cabbage” (originally “stem, stalk”) which was borrowed into Germanic and is the source of cole in cole-slaw and of Scottish kale. The front end of the word was re-Latinized from 18c.; the back end was influenced by flower (n.). The boxer’s cauliflower ear is from 1907.
Read Also:
- Cauliflower cheese
noun a dish of cauliflower with a cheese sauce, eaten hot
- Cauliflower-ear
an ear that has been deformed by repeated injury, resulting in an irregular thickening of scar tissue. noun permanent swelling and distortion of the external ear as the result of ruptures of the blood vessels: usually caused by blows received in boxing Also called boxer’s ear Technical name aural haematoma cauliflower ear cau·li·flow·er ear (kô’lĭ-flou’ər) […]
- Cauliflower-fungus
a large edible white to yellowish cauliflowerlike mushroom, Sparassis radicata, widely distributed in North America.
- Cauliflowerette
a single floret from the head of a cauliflower.
- Cauline
of or relating to a stem, especially pertaining to or arising from the upper part of a stem. Historical Examples adjective relating to or growing from a plant stem adj. “pertaining to or growing on a stem,” 1756, from Latin caulis “stalk” (see cole).