vanilla

4 definitions found

vanilla - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Vanilla \Va*nil"la\, n. [NL., fr. Sp. vainilla, dim. of Sp.
     vaina a sheath, a pod, L. vagina; because its grains, or
     seeds, are contained in little pods.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. (Bot.) A genus of climbing orchidaceous plants, natives of
        tropical America.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The long podlike capsules of Vanilla planifolia, and
        Vanilla claviculata, remarkable for their delicate and
        agreeable odor, for the volatile, odoriferous oil
        extracted from them; also, the flavoring extract made from
        the capsules, extensively used in confectionery,
        perfumery, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: As a medicine, vanilla is supposed to possess powers
           analogous to valerian, while, at the same time, it is
           far more grateful.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Cuban vanilla, a sweet-scented West Indian composite shrub
        (Eupatorium Dalea).
  
     Vanilla bean, the long capsule of the vanilla plant.
  
     Vanilla grass. Same as Holy grass, under Holy.
        [1913 Webster]

vanilla - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  vanilla
      adj 1: flavored with vanilla extract; "he liked vanilla ice
             cream"
      2: plain and without any extras or adornments; "the most common
         type of bond is the straight or plain vanilla bond"; "the
         basic car is known as the vanilla version"
      n 1: any of numerous climbing plants of the genus Vanilla having
           fleshy leaves and clusters of large waxy highly fragrant
           white or green or topaz flowers
      2: a flavoring prepared from vanilla beans macerated in alcohol
         (or imitating vanilla beans) [syn: vanilla, vanilla   extract
         ]
      3: a distinctive fragrant flavor characteristic of vanilla beans

vanilla - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  vanilla
  
     1. (Default flavour of ice cream in the US) Ordinary
     flavour, standard.  When used of food, very often does not
     mean that the food is flavoured with vanilla extract!  For
     example, "vanilla wonton soup" means ordinary wonton soup, as
     opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup.  Applied to hardware and
     software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 Unix can't run on a
     vanilla PDP 11/34."  Also used to orthogonalise chip
     nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a
     7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc.  This word differs from
     canonical in that the latter means "default", whereas
     vanilla simply means "ordinary".  For example, when hackers go
     to a chinese restaurant, hot-and-sour wonton soup is the
     canonical wonton soup to get (because that is what most of
     them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla wonton
     soup.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1994-11-04)
  
     2. Snobol4 by Catspaw, Inc. for MS-DOS.
  
     (ftp://cs.arizona.edu/snobol4/vanilla.arc).
  
     (1992-02-05)
  

vanilla - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  vanilla
   adj.
  
     [from the default flavor of ice cream in the U.S.] Ordinary flavor,
     standard. When used of food, very often does not mean that the food
  is
     flavored with vanilla extract! For example, vanilla wonton soup means
     ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied
     to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 Unix can't run on
  a
     vanilla 11/34." Also used to orthogonalize chip nomenclature; for
     instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from a
     74LS00, etc. This word differs from canonical in that the latter
     means `default', whereas vanilla simply means `ordinary'. For
  example,
     when hackers go on a great-wall, hot-and-sour soup is the
     canonical soup to get (because that is what most of them usually
     order) even though it isn't the vanilla (wonton) soup.