kiwi

Pluralkiwi, kiwis, Kiwis

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The fruit also called kiwi fruit, whose flesh is a bright green-yellow.

   Slice the kiwi thinly and arrange it on top of the tart.

   A handful of diced kiwi brightened the fruit salad.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A flightless bird native to New Zealand, belonging to the order Apterygiformes.

   Conservation workers fitted the young kiwi with a tracking device before releasing it into the forest.

   Stoats and dogs are a serious threat to kiwis in the wild.

   Note

   Maori gave English the bird's name, and that one borrowing also stands behind the fruit, the currency and the nickname for New Zealanders. For the plural, kiwi and kiwis are both correct (a pair of kiwi or a pair of kiwis), so a writer can follow either habit, as long as one text keeps to one.

3. 3
   noun · Kiwicolloquialcountable

   A native or inhabitant of New Zealand.

   Like plenty of Kiwis and Aussies, he spent a year working in London after college.

   The young Kiwi led the race from start to finish.

   Note

   A nickname without a sting: news reports use it freely, calling a gold-medal snowboarder a proud Kiwi, and it pairs naturally with Aussies, the matching word for Australians. It takes a capital K like any name for a nationality, which also keeps it apart from the bird.

4. 4
   adjective · Kiwicolloquial

   Belonging to or coming from New Zealand.

   Two Kiwi climbers reached the summit early Tuesday morning.

   The restaurant's menu leans heavily on Kiwi lamb and seafood.

   Note

   Most often it sits before a noun and simply marks origin: Kiwi climbers, Kiwi lamb. It can also be graded, as more Kiwi and most Kiwi, and then it means typical of New Zealand rather than merely from there: after ten years in Auckland, her accent sounds more Kiwi than her parents'.

5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

   A New Zealand dollar, or New Zealand's currency in general.

   The kiwi slipped against the US dollar after the central bank cut interest rates.

   Traders who bought the kiwi last month are now sitting on solid gains.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   A green-yellow color like the flesh of a kiwi fruit, also called kiwi green.

   The new sneakers come in black, white, and kiwi.

   A splash of kiwi on the trim keeps the gray room from looking dull.

7. 7
   nounslangcountable or uncountable

   A testicle, usually spoken of in the plural.

   He doubled over after the line drive caught him square in the kiwis.

   Six hours on that hard bike seat left his kiwis aching.

   Similarballs, nuts

   Note

   Joking slang that lives almost entirely in the plural: a kick lands in the kiwis, hardly ever in a kiwi. It belongs to locker-room banter and song lyrics (Primus works it into "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" in 1995), but in a doctor's office or polite company the word is testicles.

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