jack fruit

Noun

jackfruit (plural jackfruits or jackfruit)

1. A tree, Artocarpus heterophyllus, of the Moraceae family, which produces edible fruit.
   • On our return we stopped at Mr. Wijeysakera's home, quaffed the juice of King Cocoanut, looked through his extensive grounds, and saw several kinds of palm, the breadfruit-tree, the jackfruit-tree, the nux-vomica-tree, pimento or allspice shrub, nutmeg-tree, pineapples of different varieties.1882, De Robigne Mortimer Bennett, A Truth Seeker Around the World: From Bombay to Hong Kong, D. M. Bennett, page 371
2. The large fruit from this tree.
   • The fruit grows on the branches from the axil of the leaves, and attains the size of a cantaloupe melon, but more oval, and generally eight to ten inches long; it has a stalk proportioned to its size, and exactly resembles the jackfruit, which is known to all those who have journeyed to the Indies.1891, Crozet, Henry Ling Roth, James R. Boosé, Crozet's Voyage to Tasmania, New Zealand, the Ladrone Islands, and the Philippines in the Years 1771-1772, Truslove & Shirley, page 87

   Synonyms:

   jack