vegetable matter
1
3.2
- noun
:
materia vegetal
- The compost pile was filled with layers of vegetable matter, which would enrich the garden soil.
- decaying vegetable matter
Examples
-
She was always constructing these little dolls out of cloth and dried-up vegetable matter.
Fiction book (2001) -
The light was not the sickly, greenish glow of the phosphorescence that is sometimes exuded by rotting vegetable matter, but was instead a clear, steady white.
Fiction book (1993) -
Seaweed is about all the vegetable matter they eat.
Blog text (25) -
So this stuff, this decaying vegetable matter is the source of fertility.
-
Social amoebas live nearly everywhere there is soil, decaying vegetable matter, and a little bit of moisture.
Academic text (2007) -
The room folded in, as dark and airless as a closet stuffed with sun-bleached bones and some pungent, half-dried vegetable matter.
Fiction book (1990) -
This has made "herbal blends" (which are actually vegetable matter sprayed with chemicals) popular in such settings as the military and jobs that are subject to piss tests.
Blog text (7) -
In turn, the ants provide the fungi with vegetable matter on which to grow, protect them from competing organisms, and propagate them by cloning, which allows the fungi to reproduce without sex.
Academic text (1995) -
The soil on the property was described as varying from "a light sand, containing a small portion of vegetable matter, to a stiff clay; but much of it is an open, porous, gravelly texture, having a clay subsoil within a few inches of the surface.
Academic text (2015) -
Mr. du Chaillu, however, states that he examined the stomachs of the gorillas killed by himself and his hunters, and "never found traces there of aught but berries, pineapple leaves, and other vegetable matter."
Academic text (1995)
Synonyms
3
3.0
Parts of trees and other green growing things like leaves, stems or roots
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'material produced by plants' is directly and compositionally derived from 'vegetable' (plant/plant-based) + 'matter' (substance), so a learner who knows both words can infer the compound meaning. This noun-noun attributive pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows standard English formation, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Vegetable matter gives a simple picture: bits of plants like leaves, stems, and peels. The word vegetable points to plants and matter means 'stuff', so vegetable matter means 'material from plants', for example compost or plant remains.