oranges

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of orange.

   We squeezed a dozen oranges to make fresh juice for breakfast.

   Crates of oranges were loaded onto the truck before dawn.

   Note

   A regular plural that serves the countable meanings: the fruit, the tree that bears it, and the sweet orange in particular. The color, midway between red and yellow, is uncountable, and so are most of the drinks, so oranges normally points to fruit or trees rather than to the color. The cordial can go either way. The same spelling also works as the verb form, as in the sun oranges the clouds.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of orange.

   Autumn oranges the maple leaves across the entire ridge.

   The setting sun oranges the clouds along the horizon every evening.

   Note

   The verb behind this form works two ways. Used transitively, it means to color something orange, as when the sun oranges the clouds. Used intransitively, it means to become orange, so a sky oranges at dusk with no object at all. Either way, the -s marks a singular subject in the present. The verb is made directly from the color word, with no added suffix.

   The western sky oranges slowly as the sun goes down.

   Every autumn the hillside oranges before it turns brown.

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