1. Any of various chiefly tropical trees of the genus Diospyros, having hard wood and orange-red fruit that is edible only when completely ripe.
2. The fruit of any of these trees.

[Of Virginia Algonquian origin.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.