peach

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See also: Peach

English

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Autumn red peaches (noun sense 2)

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: pēch, IPA(key): /piːt͡ʃ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːtʃ

Etymology 1

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From Middle English peche, borrowed from Old French pesche (French pêche), Vulgar Latin *pessica (cf. Medieval Latin pesca) from Late Latin persica, from Classical Latin mālum persicum, from Ancient Greek μᾶλον περσικόν (mâlon persikón, “Persian apple”). Displaced Middle English persogʒe, from Old English persoc, from the same Latin root above.

Noun

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peach (countable and uncountable, plural peaches)

  2. (countable) Any tree of species Prunus persica, native to China and now widely cultivated throughout temperate regions, having pink flowers and edible fruit.
    Synonym: peach tree
    • 1768, M. Combles, A Treatise Upon the Culture of Peach Trees, page 8:
      I think it the best way to plant the fifteen sorts, and the hard Peaches I have mentioned, in the same order as they stand in the list.
    • 1840, Thomas Bridgeman, The Young Gardener’s Assistant, page 136:
      Several attempts have been made to class the varieties of Peaches and Nectarines by the leaf and flower, as well as the fruit.
    • 1942, Raymond Earl Storie, Soil Survey, the Pixley Area, California, volume 1, page 11:
      Scattered plantings of peaches are maintained on the light-textured deep alluvial soils of the Foster, Cajon, Hanford, Hesperia, and Greenfield series west of Porterville, near Woodville, Poplar, Sausalito School, and farther south along the Kern County boundary line north of Delano.
    • 2014, Melissa Walker, The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, volume 11, page 183:
      State universities and U.S. Department of Agriculture facilities have largely replaced the private state and national pomological and horticultural organizations as the primary researchers for peach cultivation.
  4. (countable, uncountable) Soft juicy stone fruit of the peach tree, having yellow flesh, downy, red-tinted yellow skin, and a deeply sculptured pit or stone containing a single seed.
    • 1789, Hester Lynch Piozzi, Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey Through France, Italy, and Germany, volume II, page 191:
      [A]nd that the English should eat peaches in May, and green pease in October, sounds to Italian ears as a miracle; they comfort themselves, however, by saying that they must be very insipid, while we know that fruits forced by strong fire are at least many of them higher in flavour than those produced by sun […]
    • 1869, The American Housewife and Kitchen Directory, page 104:
      When dissolved, stir it up well, and put in the peaches, without crowding them, and boil them slowly about twenty minutes.
    • 1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egoist […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 15:
      Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare eat a peach? / I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
    • 2012, Jasper Woodroof, Commercial Fruit Processing, page 103:
      Boiling water or steam loosens the peel of very ripe peaches, especially freestone or melting-flesh types, in 10–30 sec.
  6. (uncountable) A light yellow-red colour.
    • 1854, Thomas Love, The Art of Cleaning, Dyeing, Scouring and Finishing, etc, page 242:
      To dye one chip bonnet peach colour, put four ounces of cudbear in one gallon of water, make it boil, and put one ounce of soda in the liquor.
    • 1990, Lila Fretz, Hooking Rugs: Storey’s Country Wisdom Bulletin, page 27:
      If the dye is for a light color such as peach, more dry dye could be used.
    • 2013, Kim Eichler-Messmer, Modern Color—An Illustrated Guide to Dyeing Fabric for Modern Quilts, page 61:
      Circle Quilt throw in peach and green
    peach:  
  7. (countable, informal) A particularly admirable or pleasing person or thing.
    • 1922 September, Lucile Brewer, “Fourteen Peach Delicacies”, in The Delineator, volume 101, page 58:
      How did the common expressions "She's a peach!" and "He has a peach of a job!" arise if not because the peach of all fruits is a symbol of perfection?
    • 1977, “Peaches”, in Rattus Norvegicus, performed by The Stranglers:
      Walking on the beaches / looking at the peaches
    • 1996, Paul L. Mariani, Dream Song: The Life of John Berryman, page 30:
      Except for the loss of Uncle Jack's income, his mother's growing disenchantment with her domestic arrangements, and the deepening Depression, it was a peach of a time for Berryman.
    • 2012 September 15, Amy Lawrence, “Arsenal's Gervinho enjoys the joy of six against lowly Southampton”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      Arsenal's dominance was reflected in a flurry of goals before half-time – three in six minutes: first, Podolski turned the screw with a peach of a free-kick; then Gervinho accelerated on to Mikel Arteta's beautifully crafted pass and beat Davis at his near post with conviction; and finally Southampton's defence unspooled completely when Gervinho broke to release Gibbs, whose return ball cannoned off Nathaniel Clyne for Southampton's second own goal of a sobering afternoon.
      (Can we archive this URL?)
  8. (often in plural) buttock or bottom.
    • 1977, “Peaches”, performed by the Stranglers:
      Down on the beaches, just look at all the peaches
    • 2011, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, A Shore Thing:
      Gia danced around a little, shaking her peaches for show. She shook it hard. Too hard. In the middle of a shimmy, her stomach cramped. A fart slipped out. A loud one. And stinky.
Hypernyms
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → Abenaki: biches (from the plural peaches)
  • →? Arapaho: biisib
  • → Bengali: পীচ (pic) (probably)
  • → Haida: píichas
  • → Malay: pic (probably)
  • →? Maori: pītiti
  • → Swahili: pichi (probably)
  • → Thai: พีช (píit)
Translations
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Adjective

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peach (comparative more peach, superlative most peach)

  1. Of or pertaining to the color peach.
    • 2006, Anne Bold-Pryor, The Naked Wall‎[2]:
      Looking around her very large and very peach open kitchen and family room, I couldn't believe my eyes, but I knew the color must be there for a reason.
    • 2012, Mac Barnett, It Happened on a Train‎[3]:
      The dining compartment was very peach.
    • 2014, Kristin G. Congdon, Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon:
      Perhaps this is best illustrated in the particularly bizarre Kinkade painting entitled The Good Shepherd's Cottage, where an openarmed (and very peach) Jesus welcomes a herd of sheep—literal sheep—to the threshold of a glowing cottage.
  2. Particularly pleasing or agreeable.
    Synonyms: agreeable, fair, orange, paragon, peachy, rosy
    Antonyms: disagreeable, foul, ugly, unpleasant
    • 2000, Marc Behm, Afraid to Death, →ISBN, page 174:
      'That'll be just peach with me.'
    • 2011 May 19, Gilbert Sullivan, “SWF (Adobe Flash) support”, in linux.debian.user‎[4] (Usenet):
      If I explain that I won't help them maintain systems running proprietary software (I'll make an exception for firmware, sometimes.) they usually shrug their shoulders and ask someone else -- which is just peach with me.
    • 2011, R. J. Anderson, Ultraviolet, →ISBN, page 9:
      Her words were peach with sincerity, and I could tell she really believed it was a good idea.
    • 2015 November 2, “Resetting, goalsetting, and dreamsetting”, in From Athlete to triathlete:
      I am sure I was just peach to deal with.
Translations
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See also

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Further reading

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Etymology 2

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From Middle English pechen, from apechen (“to accuse”) and empechen (“to accuse”), possibly from Anglo-Norman anpecher, from Late Latin impedicō (“entangle”). See impeach.

Verb

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peach (third-person singular simple present peaches, present participle peaching, simple past and past participle peached)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To inform on someone; turn informer.
    Synonyms: sing, squeal, tattle; see also Thesaurus:rat out
    • 1623, Shakespeare, Henry IV:
      If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this.
    • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 9, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:
      "But will your cousin tell?" was Ripton's reflection.
      "He!" Richard's lip expressed contempt. "A ploughman refuses to peach, and you ask if a Feverel will?"
    • 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, paperback edition, Macmillan Press Ltd, page 21:
      And his father had told him if he ever wanted anything to write home to him and, whatever he did, never to peach on a fellow.
    • 1913, Rex Stout, Her Forbidden Knight, Carroll & Graf, published 1997, →ISBN, page 123:
      "Do you think we want to peach? No, thank you. We may be none too good, but we won't hang a guy up, no matter who he is. […] "
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To inform against.
    • 1535, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, volume 9, published 1886, page 387:
      Complaining of the conduct of Sir Ralph Robinson, parson of Brede, in Sussex, who took from him a psalter book in English, printed cum privilegio regali, and peached him of heresy, whereupon he was put in the stocks by the King's constable for two days.
    • 1774, “The British Theatre”, in London Magazine, volume 43, page 639:
      […] and finding out the residence of his brother Charles, desires him not to peach him, but to lend him a suit of his fine cloaths, that he might see what it was to be a fine gentleman […]
    • 1840, Daniel Defoe, Life of Colonel Jack: And, a True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal‎[5]:
      Ay, says Will, I am undone for all that; for the officers are after me; and I am a dead dog if I am taken, for George is in custody, and he has peached me and all the others, to save his life.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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Noun

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peach (uncountable)

  1. (mineralogy, obsolete, Cornwall) A particular rock found in tin mines, sometimes associated with chlorite.
    • 1858, Robert Philips Greg, Manual of the mineralogy of Great Britain & Ireland‎[6]:
      Chlorite forms the characterizing ingredient in chlorite slate; it is common in Cornwall with the tin veins, constituting with quartz the rock commonly known there as killas; the ordinary name for chlorite is peach.
    • 1862, “Illustrated Notes on Prominent Mines”, in The Mining and Smelting Magazine‎[7], volume 2, page 17:
      Peach, which is a word used by the Cornish miners, in a generic sense, to denote all minerals of the chloritic family—and is consequently a very convenient word—seems to be essentially the "mother" of tin; but the experience of Cornwall goes to show that peach alone does not produce a permanent tin mine: an intermixture of quartz is necessary to give what miners call "strength" to the lode.
    • 1908, James Bastian Hill, The Geology of Falmouth and Truro and of the Mining District of Camborne and Redruth‎[8]:
      A quartz (sparry) vein, unless accompanied by other minerals such as peach, chlorite, &c., is considered valueless as an indication of the presence of ore.
Derived terms
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Anagrams

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