Definition of "greengage" [green•gage]

• A variety of plum (Prunus domestica) having yellowish-green skin and sweet flesh. (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.

• "These trees also differ in their manner of growth: "the greengage is a very short-jointed, slow-growing tree, of spreading and rather dwarfish habit;" whilst its offspring, the imperial gage, "grows freely and rises rapidly, and has long dark shoots.""
• "And once the cards had been taken down from their strings and the tree lights well and truly entangled for next year, it was always a particular joy in the first days of January to wander up the garden path through the 'orchard' as we euphemistically called it, to take a look at a patch of earth under a stubborn old greengage tree."
• "This has been greengage week, with mine ripening in the garden and a spate of greengage-related dishes on restaurant menus, including a very tempting almond tart at Bayswater's Le Café Anglais."