Nut

nut, n. the name popularly given to all those fruits which have the seed enclosed in a bony, woody, or leathery pericarp, not opening when ripe: ( bot. ) a one-celled fruit, with a hardened pericarp, containing, when mature, only one seed: often the hazel-nut, sometimes the walnut: a small block of metal for screwing on the end of a bolt.— v.i. to gather nuts:— pr.p. nut′ting; pa.p. nut′ted. — adj. Nut′-brown , brown, like a ripe old nut.— ns. Nut′cracker , an instrument for cracking nuts: a genus of birds of the family Corvidæ ; Nut′-gall , an excrescence, chiefly of the oak; Nut′hatch , a genus of birds of the family Sittidæ , agile creepers—also Nut′jobber , Nut′pecker ; Nut′-hook , a stick with a hook at the end for pulling down boughs that the nuts may be gathered: a bailiff, a thief who uses a hook; Nut′meal , meal made from the kernels of nuts; Nut′-oil , an oil obtained from walnuts; Nut′-pine , one of several pines with large edible seeds; Nut′shell , the hard substance that encloses the kernel of a nut: anything of little value; Nut′ter , one who gathers nuts; Nut′tine ; Nut′ting , the gathering of nuts; Nut′-tree , any tree bearing nuts, esp. the hazel.— adj. Nut′ty , abounding in nuts: having the flavour of nuts.— n. Nut′-wrench , an instrument for fixing on nuts or removing them from screws.— A nut to crack , a difficult problem to solve; Be nuts on ( slang ), to be very fond of; In a nutshell , in small compa . [A.S. hnutu ; Ice. hnot , Dut. noot , Ger. nu .]