Vegetable \Veg`e*ta*ble\, a. [F. v['e]g['e]table growing, capable of growing, formerly also, as a noun, a vegetable, from L. vegetabilis enlivening, from vegetare to enliven, invigorate, quicken, vegetus enlivened, vigorous, active, vegere to quicken, arouse, to be lively, akin to vigere to be lively, to thrive, vigil watchful, awake, and probably to E. wake, v. See Vigil, Wake, v.]

1. Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable growths, juices, etc.

Blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold. --Milton.

2. Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable kingdom.

Vegetable alkali (Chem.), an alkaloid.

Vegetable brimstone. (Bot.) See Vegetable sulphur, below.

Vegetable butter (Bot.), a name of several kinds of concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian butter tree, the African shea tree, and the Pentadesma butyracea, a tree of the order Guttifer[ae], also African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of cocoa (Theobroma).

Vegetable flannel, a textile material, manufactured in Germany from pine-needle wool, a down or fiber obtained from the leaves of the Pinus sylvestris.

Vegetable ivory. See Ivory nut, under Ivory.

Vegetable jelly. See Pectin.

Vegetable kingdom. (Nat. Hist.) See the last Phrase, below.

Vegetable leather.
   (a) (Bot.) A shrubby West Indian spurge (Euphorbia punicea), with leathery foliage and crimson bracts.
   (b) See Vegetable leather, under Leather.

Vegetable marrow (Bot.), an egg-shaped gourd, commonly eight to ten inches long. It is noted for the very tender quality of its flesh, and is a favorite culinary vegetable in England. It has been said to be of Persian origin, but is now thought to have been derived from a form of the American pumpkin.

Vegetable oyster (Bot.), the oyster plant. See under Oyster.

Vegetable parchment, papyrine.

Vegetable sheep (Bot.), a white woolly plant (Raoulia eximia) of New Zealand, which grows in the form of large fleecy cushions on the mountains.

Vegetable silk, a cottonlike, fibrous material obtained from the coating of the seeds of a Brazilian tree (Chorisia speciosa). It us used for various purposes, as for stuffing, and the like, but is incapable of being spun on account of a want of cohesion among the fibers.

Vegetable sponge. See 1st Loof.

Vegetable sulphur, the fine highly inflammable spores of the club moss (Lycopodium clavatum); witch.

Vegetable tallow, a substance resembling tallow, obtained from various plants; as, Chinese vegetable tallow, obtained from the seeds of the tallow tree. Indian vegetable tallow is a name sometimes given to piney tallow.

Vegetable wax, a waxy excretion on the leaves or fruits of certain plants, as the bayberry.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Marrow \Mar"row\, n. [OE. marou, mary, maruh, AS. mearg, mearh; akin to OS. marg, D. merg, G. Mark, OHG. marg, marag, Icel. mergr, Sw. merg, Dan. marv, Skr. majjan; cf. Skr. majj to sink, L. mergere. [root]274 Cf. Merge.]

1. (Anat.) The tissue which fills the cavities of most bones; the medulla. In the larger cavities it is commonly very fatty, but in the smaller cavities it is much less fatty, and red or reddish in color.

2. The essence; the best part.

It takes from our achievements . . . The pith and marrow of our attribute. --Shak.

3. [OE. maru, maro; -- perh. a different word; cf. Gael. maraon together.]

One of a pair; a match; a companion; an intimate associate. [Scot.]

Chopping and changing I can not commend, With thief or his marrow, for fear of ill end. --Tusser.

Marrow squash (Bot.), a name given to several varieties of squash, esp. to the Boston marrow, an ovoid fruit, pointed at both ends, and with reddish yellow flesh, and to the vegetable marrow, a variety of an ovoid form, and having a soft texture and fine grain resembling marrow.

Spinal marrow. (Anat.) See Spinal cord, under Spinal.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)