Definition of "fig" []

• Any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Ficus, especially F. carica, native to the Mediterranean region and widely cultivated for its edible multiple fruit. (noun)
• The sweet, hollow, pear-shaped, multiple fruit of this plant, having numerous tiny seedlike fruits. (noun)
• Any of several plants bearing similar fruit. (noun)
• The fruit of such a plant. (noun)
• A trivial or contemptible amount: not worth a fig; didn't care a fig. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Consequently, all _goats_ were driven from the banks of this river; but one day, Theŏclos observed that the branches of a fig tree bent into the stream, and it immediately flashed into his mind that the Messenian word for _fig tree_ and _goat_ was the same."
• "Paul Barr conversed with my father, laying down the law in his most superb fashion regarding the immense fortune in store for any one who would start what he called a fig farm in this country."
• "A ripe fig is slightly soft and gives under light pressure."