# fig

Pronunciation: say "FIG" /fɪɡ/

## Noun

1. The pear-shaped fruit of the fig tree, filled with many small seeds.
   - Simple: A pear-shaped fruit full of tiny seeds that grows on a fig tree.
   - _She sliced a ripe fig and served it with goat cheese and honey._
   - _A bag of dried figs makes a good snack on a long hike._
2. A fruit-bearing tree or shrub of the genus Ficus, native mainly to tropical regions.
   - Simple: A tree or bush that grows fruit and comes mostly from hot parts of the world.
   - _A fig grew against the sunny wall of the garden, heavy with fruit by late summer._
   - _She wrapped the fish in broad fig leaves before grilling it._
3. Abbreviation of figure, used for a diagram or illustration. — Abbreviation of figure (“diagram or illustration”).
   - Simple: Short for figure. Used for a picture or chart in a book, often with a number.
   - _The results of the second trial are shown in fig. 3._
   - _As fig. 2 makes clear, the bridge rests on four main supports._
4. Something worth practically nothing; the least bit, as in not caring a fig about something.
   - Simple: Almost nothing at all, as when someone does not care a fig about something.
   - _She didn't care a fig what the neighbors thought of her garden._
   - _The coach doesn't give a fig for the new rules, and he says so at every meeting._
5. A gesture made to show contempt, known also as a fico.
   - Simple: A rude sign someone makes to show they think very little of another person.
   - _The jester turned and made a fig at the king's guards before running off._
   - _In the painting, a drunken soldier gives the passing priest a scornful fig._
6. The Lady Finger banana, a cultivated variety of Musa acuminata also known as the fig banana.
   - Simple: A kind of banana, also called a Lady Finger banana or fig banana.
   - _The market stall sold hands of figs beside the plantains and the larger bananas._
   - _He peeled a fig, much shorter than an ordinary banana, and finished it in three bites._
7. A small piece or portion of tobacco.
   - Simple: A little piece of tobacco.
   - _He traded the stranger a fig of tobacco for a mug of hot tea._
   - _The old miner cut a fig of tobacco from the block and pressed it into his pipe._

## Noun

8. A person's figure, dress, or general appearance. *(dated)*
   - Simple: How a person looks, including their body and the clothes they are wearing.
   - _The mayor arrived at the parade in full fig, medals and sash included._
   - _Uncle Ned was in fine fig for the wedding, his mustache waxed and his shoes polished._
10. A raisin, the dried fruit of the grape. *(dated, Newfoundland)*
   - Simple: A raisin, which is a small dried grape.
   - _She soaked the figs overnight until they plumped up like fresh grapes again._
   - _There was hardly a spoonful of the figgy duff without a fig in it._

## Verb

9. To dress a person, or get oneself up, in a particular way. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To dress yourself or someone else in a special way.
   - _Let's fig ourselves out in our grandparents' old clothes for the costume party._
   - _They figged the twins out in sailor suits for the family portrait._
11. Of soap, to develop white streaks or granulations, or to cause a soap to develop them. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To make soap get white streaks or tiny grains, or for soap to get them by itself.
   - _If the batch cools too quickly, the soap may fig unevenly across the top._
   - _The factory figged its cheaper laundry soap so that it looked like the expensive kind._
12. To insert a piece of ginger root into the anus, vagina, or urethra of a horse. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To push a piece of ginger root into a horse's back passage or other private opening.
   - _A dishonest dealer would fig a tired horse so that it held its tail high in the sale ring._
   - _The vet could tell at once that the mare had been figged._
13. To insult someone by making a fico, a gesture of contempt. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To insult someone by making a rude sign at them.
   - _The loser figged the winner from across the hall, and the crowd booed him for it._
   - _Boys would fig the landlord from the doorways whenever he came down the street._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To move suddenly or quickly, or to roam restlessly about.
- (noun) A piece of ginger root prepared and used for the practice of figging.
- (verb) To put something useless or contemptible into a person's head.

## Origin

From Middle English fige, fygge, borrowed through Anglo-Norman and Old French figue and Old Occitan figa from Vulgar Latin *fīca ("fig"), from Latin fīcus ("fig tree"). The Latin word came from a pre-Indo-European language, perhaps Phoenician 𐤐𐤂 (pg, "ripe fig"); compare Biblical Hebrew פַּגָּה (paggâ, "early fallen fig"). The soap-making sense comes from the resemblance of the soap's granulations and texture to those of a fig; it is a doublet of fico.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/fig (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).