gardens

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of garden.

   Rain finally reached the community gardens after six dry weeks.

   The palace gardens open to the public on summer weekends.

   Note

   A regular plural that inherits every sense of the singular: planted plots, ornamental grounds open to the public, roads and streets that sometimes occupy a former garden, and, in British and Appalachian speech, the grounds in front of or behind a house. The same spelling serves as the verb's present tense: she gardens on Sundays. Only the sentence tells the two apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of garden.

   She gardens organically and swears the tomatoes taste better for it.

   Since retiring, he gardens almost every day and gives away the extra vegetables.

   Note

   A verb that stands without a direct object. Someone simply gardens, and any place comes after a preposition: she gardens in a small plot behind the house. Cricket gives the form a second life, because a batsman who gardens is smoothing the pitch with light taps of the bat. A slang use for smoking marijuana also exists, so in casual talk the setting tells you which meaning is intended.

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