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Glite Dictionary
🥒 A green vegetable 🧍 A thin person
string bean

string bean

7 2.7
A long green bean with a tough string along its pod you remove before eating
  • noun
  • /ˈstrɪŋ ˌbiːn/
  • US
translation icon : judía verde
  • Pass the string beans.
  • potatoes and string beans
  • chicken and string beans
  • sautéed string beans

I don't know if this is shrimp with broccoli and shrimp and we got sauteed string beans.

Examples

  • We didn't have much money, but all summer long we had fresh vegetables such as squash, string beans, tomatoes, etc.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Perhaps a string bean salad with vinaigrette?

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Did you get some string beans?

    Manchester by the Sea (2016)

  • Would you hate me if I asked you to clean some string beans?

    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

  • Are there any more string beans, please?

    Summer Stock (1950)

  • Yeah, I want to order some more of those pink string beans!

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Helen was picking at a plate of cold string beans.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Veal medallions with artichoke hearts and lemon, parmesan potatoes, and braised string beans.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • For dinner, we had grilled chicken and sautéed string beans as a side dish.

  • She prefers to eat string beans fresh from the garden, without adding any seasoning.

Synonyms

bean
vsstring bean
512 1.0

An edible seed or pod from plants like peas and lentils used for food

is a specific variety with tough strings on pods that must be removed
green bean
vsstring bean
  • Indian
1 1.0

A small round seed used in Asian cooking, often dried or soaked

is a specific variety with tough fibrous strings on its pods requiring removal
runner bean
vsstring bean
  • UK
1 3.7

A climbing plant with long green pods and red flowers grown for food

has tough fibrous strings along its pods that must be removed before eating
wax bean
vsstring bean
1 3.1

A yellow bean with edible pods eaten as a vegetable

has tough fibrous strings along its pods that must be removed before eating
English runner bean
vsstring bean
  • UK
4.8

A bean plant with long pods that people cook and eat

has tough fibrous strings along its pods that must be removed before eating
yard-long bean
vsstring bean
3.5

A long green bean with very long pods used as a vegetable

has tough fibrous strings along its pods that must be removed before eating

How Tender

snap bean
  • US
1 2.7
French bean
  • UK
1 2.1
string bean
  • US
7 2.7

Surface Forms

bean singular
beans plural

Morphology

string + bean

The person sense is a visual metaphor based on the long, thin vegetable 'string bean' so a learner who knows 'string' and 'bean' can plausibly infer that it describes someone very thin (and often tall). This is not strictly literal composition but a predictable, cross-linguistically common metaphor, so the relation is partially clear but requires metaphorical mapping.

Etymology

String bean gets its name from the long string that used to run along the bean pod and had to be pulled off before cooking, so the name fits this kind of green bean with a tough string to remove.