water chestnut

2 definitions found

water chestnut - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Water chestnut \Wa"ter chest"nut\ (Bot.)
     The fruit of Trapa natans and Trapa bicornis, Old World
     water plants bearing edible nutlike fruits armed with several
     hard and sharp points; also, the plant itself; -- called also
     water caltrop.
     [1913 Webster]

water chestnut - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  water chestnut
      n 1: a plant of the genus Trapa bearing spiny four-pronged
           edible nutlike fruits [syn: water chestnut, water chestnut plant
           , caltrop]
      2: Chinese sedge yielding edible bulb-shaped tubers [syn: water   chestnut
         , Chinese water chestnut, Eleocharis dulcis]
      3: edible bulbous tuber of a Chinese marsh plant