Nut

Nut, nut, n. the name popularly given to all those fruits which have the seed enclosed in a bony, woody, or leathery pericarp, not opening when ripe: (bot.) a one-celled fruit, with a hardened pericarp, containing, when mature, only one seed: often the hazel-nut, sometimes the walnut: a small block of metal for screwing on the end of a bolt.—v.i. to gather nuts:—pr.p. nut′ting; pa.p. nut′ted.—adj. Nut′-brown, brown, like a ripe old nut.—ns. Nut′cracker, an instrument for cracking nuts: a genus of birds of the family Corvidæ; Nut′-gall, an excrescence, chiefly of the oak; Nut′hatch, a genus of birds of the family Sittidæ, agile creepers—also Nut′jobber, Nut′pecker; Nut′-hook, a stick with a hook at the end for pulling down boughs that the nuts may be gathered: a bailiff, a thief who uses a hook; Nut′meal, meal made from the kernels of nuts; Nut′-oil, an oil obtained from walnuts; Nut′-pine, one of several pines with large edible seeds; Nut′shell, the hard substance that encloses the kernel of a nut: anything of little value; Nut′ter, one who gathers nuts; Nut′tiness; Nut′ting, the gathering of nuts; Nut′-tree, any tree bearing nuts, esp. the hazel.—adj. Nut′ty, abounding in nuts: having the flavour of nuts.—n. Nut′-wrench, an instrument for fixing on nuts or removing them from screws.—A nut to crack, a difficult problem to solve; Be nuts on (slang), to be very fond of; In a nutshell, in small compass. [A.S. hnutu; Ice. hnot, Dut. noot, Ger. nuss.]