water chestnut

American  

noun

1. any aquatic plant of the genus Trapa, bearing an edible, nutlike fruit, especially T. natans, of the Old World.

2. the fruit itself.

---

water chestnut British  

noun

1. Also called: water caltrop.  a floating aquatic onagraceous plant, Trapa natans, of Asia, having four-pronged edible nutlike fruits

2. a Chinese cyperaceous plant, Eleocharis tuberosa, with an edible succulent corm

3. the corm of the Chinese water chestnut, used in Oriental cookery

---

Etymology

Origin of water chestnut

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Bouncy and springy, sharp with minced garlic chives, it is punctuated here and there with crisp bits of water chestnut.

From New York Times • Feb. 28, 2022

It also ensures that you will not go to prison for transporting water chestnut plants across state lines.

From Reuters • Dec. 21, 2020

Local officials have spent years beating back the European water chestnut, most notably from the Audubon Community Nature Center’s Big Pond, and now are dealing with massive outbreaks of harmful algal blooms.

From Washington Times • Sep. 13, 2017

“I love that they’re crisp, kind of like a water chestnut — that’s just a fun thing to eat as far as texture goes,” she said on the phone recently.

From New York Times • May 28, 2015

In the zenana of the royal palace there was a woman, tall, lithe, with a skin of ivory and roses and eyes as brown as the husk of a water chestnut.

From The Adventures of Kathlyn by MacGrath, Harold