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peach

PEECH/piːt͡ʃ/

Pluralpeaches

9 meanings of peach

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  1. 1
    fruitnouncountable or uncountable
    A soft, juicy stone fruit with yellow or white flesh, fuzzy red-tinted yellow skin, and a single large pit.

    The peach was so ripe that its skin split at the slightest touch.

    Vendors stacked peaches in neat pyramids at the market.

    UsageSay a peach or peaches for whole fruit, and peach with no article as an ingredient: peach in syrup.

  2. 2
    fruit treenouncountable
    A tree of the species Prunus persica, native to China and now grown across temperate regions, bearing pink flowers and edible fruit.

    The peach in our backyard blossoms every spring before the leaves appear.

    Gardeners prune their peaches in late winter to encourage new growth.

    UsageMost people say a peach tree; peach alone for the tree is common in gardening writing.

    Note

    The name carries a journey. Middle English peche goes back through Old French and Latin to Greek mâlon persikón, "Persian apple," though the tree itself is native to China. In gardening prose the plural peaches often means the trees, as when M. Combles's A Treatise Upon the Culture of Peach Trees (English translation, 1768) advises how to plant "the hard Peaches".

  3. 3
    light orangenoununcountable
    A light yellow-red color, like the skin of the ripe fruit.

    The designer chose peach for the curtains to warm the room.

    At dawn the sky turned a delicate peach above the hills.

  4. 4
    adjective
    Having the light yellow-red color of the ripe fruit.

    He picked out peach curtains for the living room.

    Her cheeks flushed a peach hue in the cold.

  5. 5
    real gemnouncolloquialcountable
    Someone or something especially delightful, likable, or admirable.

    Thanks for covering my shift. You're a real peach.

    Their new babysitter is an absolute peach.

    UsageOften a real peach, or a peach of a + noun: a peach of a job.

    Similargem, star, treasure, darling

    Note

    Praise with a construction of its own: a peach of a job, a peach of a time, a peach of a free-kick, where the of-phrase means "an excellent one." On its own it is warm and informal, as in she's a peach, said of someone kind or obliging. Lucile Brewer, writing in The Delineator in 1922, already called both patterns common and traced them to the peach as the fruit of perfection.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Lucile Brewer wrote the cited passage in The Delineator in 1922; Wiktionary identifies the article as Fourteen Peach Delicacies, September 1922, page 58. en.wiktionary.org
    • Brewer called both expressions common and explained them through the peach's symbolism of perfection. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–6

It comes from Middle English peche, from Old French pesche, going back through Late and Classical Latin to Ancient Greek mâlon persikón, meaning "Persian apple."

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

  • Peach comes from Middle English peche, borrowed from Old French pesche. en.wiktionary.org
  • The word's ancestry passes through Late Latin and Classical Latin. en.wiktionary.org
  • The ultimate Greek phrase is mâlon persikón, meaning Persian apple. en.wiktionary.org
Meaning 7

Late Latin impedicō ("entangle") and Anglo-Norman anpecher are a possible source. The word itself is Middle English pechen, a relative of apechen and empechen, which both meant "to accuse." Compare impeach.