peach¹ (pēch)
n.

1. 1. A small Chinese tree (Prunus persica) widely cultivated throughout temperate regions, having pink flowers and edible fruit.
   2. The soft juicy fruit of this tree, having yellow flesh, downy, red-tinted yellow skin, and a deeply sculptured stone containing a single seed.
2. A light moderate to strong yellowish pink to light orange.
3. Informal. A particularly admirable or pleasing person or thing.

[Middle English peche, from Old French, a peach, from Latin persica, peach tree, from Greek persikē, from feminine of Persikos, Persian. See perse.]

peach² (pēch)

v., peached, peach·ing, peach·es.

v.intr.
To inform on someone; turn informer: "Middle-level bureaucrats cravenly peach on their bosses [when] one of them does something the tiniest bit illegal" (National Observer).

v.tr.
To inform against: "He has peached me and all the others, to save his life" (Daniel Defoe).

[Middle English pechen, from apechen, to accuse (probably from Anglo-Norman *anpecher , from Late Latin impedicāre, to entangle; see impeach) and from empechen, to accuse; see impeach.]

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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.

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