Word.ws English Dictionary

ratoon

/ɹəˈtuːn/

ratoon noun: a shoot sprouting from the root of a cropped plant, especially sugar cane.

Noun

ratoon (plural ratoons)

  1. A shoot sprouting from the root of a cropped plant, especially sugar cane.
    • Ratoons, probably so named from a corruption of the Spanish word brotones, are suckers and sprouts, that spring from the roots of canes that have previously been cut down.1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica” in Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, p. xci
    • Their field tasks were somewhat easier than those of the great gang: cleaning and banking young canes, turning over trash or ratoon pieces (canes sprouting from old roots).1926, Frank Wesley Pitman, “The Organization of Slave Labor”, in The Journal of Negro History, volume 11, number 4, page 600
  2. A rattan cane.
    • Mr. Hawley did give me a little black rattoon, painted and gilt.1660, Samuel Pepys, diary entry for 13 September, 1660, in Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, London: Henry Colburn, 1848, 3rd edition, Volume 1, p. 134

Verb

ratoon (third-person singular simple present ratoons, present participle ratooning, simple past and past participle ratooned)

  1. (intransitive) To sprout ratoons.
    • In the sugar areas to the north and south of the Colony cane has been known to "ratoon" for 20 to 30 years.1893, “Resources of British Honduras”, in Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, vol. 1893, no. 82/83, p. 327
  2. (transitive) To cut a plant, especially sugar cane, so that it will produce ratoons.
    • Attempts to propagate them by cuttings (of flowering shoots) and to ratoon the old plants in the greenhouse in November were unsuccessful.1969, M. Menzel; F. Wilson, "Genetic Relationships in Hibiscus Sect. Furcaria," Brittonia, vol. 21, no. 2, p. 100

ratoon meaning in Tamil

ratoon in Tamil

வேரங்குரம், கட்டைப்பயிர் மறுகாம்புப்பயிர், மறுதாம்பு

Examples of ratoon in a sentence

  • A number of very small fruits from Cayenne ratoons were recently examined.1968, Paul C. Ekern, “Phyllotaxy of Pineapple Plant and Fruit”, in Botanical Gazette, volume 129, number 1, page 94:
  • Soon after harvest, new shoots emerge from axillary buds on the stubble and give rise to the ratoon crop.2005, Patrice Cadet with Vaughan W. Spaull, “Nematode Parasites of Sugarcane”, in Michel Luc, Richard A. Sikora, John Bridge, editors...

Forms of ratoon

Noun
pluralratoons
alternative formrattoon
Verb
third-person singular presentratoons
present participleratooning
past participleratooned
pastratooned

Origin of ratoon

Possibly from Spanish retoño.

Words formed from ratoon

Words that rhyme with ratoon

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ratoon

What does ratoon mean?
Ratoon means a shoot sprouting from the root of a cropped plant, especially sugar cane.
What is ratoon in Tamil?
Ratoon in Tamil is வேரங்குரம், கட்டைப்பயிர் மறுகாம்புப்பயிர், மறுதாம்பு. See Ratoon meaning in Tamil.
How do you use ratoon in a sentence?
A number of very small fruits from Cayenne ratoons were recently examined.
What part of speech is ratoon?
Ratoon can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce ratoon?
Ratoon is pronounced /ɹəˈtuːn/.
What is the plural of ratoon?
The plural of ratoon is ratoons.

Words near ratoon in the dictionary

  1. ratness
  2. rato
  3. RATOG
  4. Raton
  5. Raton Pass
  6. ratoon
  7. ratoonability
  8. ratoonable
  9. ratooned
  10. ratooner
  11. ratooners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ratoon (page history and authors); ratoon (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ratoon.wav.

Cite this entry: “ratoon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ratoon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.