vegetable oyster
- noun
- UK
:
ostra vegetal
- Many gardeners grow vegetable oyster for its unique oyster-like flavor.
Examples
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I tried a vegetable oyster dish at the new restaurant.
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The roots of the vegetable oyster are a popular delicacy in some regions.
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We roasted the vegetable oyster and served it with a creamy sauce.
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Have you ever tasted vegetable oysters before?
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In culinary circles, the vegetable oyster is prized for its unique flavor that resembles that of actual oysters.
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My grandmother loves to cook dishes using vegetable oyster to add a delightful, seafood-like taste to her meals.
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At the market, I found fresh vegetable oyster roots, which I plan to prepare for dinner tonight.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A garden plant that has long white roots and purple flowers
A garden plant with purple flowers grown for its long root you can eat as a vegetable
A plant with a long white root that tastes like oysters when cooked
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'vegetable' (an edible plant) plus 'oyster' (the seafood), i.e. a plant whose root tastes like an oyster; the dictionary definition matches this compositional reading. Noun–noun compounds signaling resemblance or taste are cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the meaning.
Etymology
The name vegetable oyster likely comes from the taste of the plant's root. Early cooks found the root of a plant called salsify tasted like an oyster, so they joined vegetable and oyster to name it; that's why the phrase means a plant with an edible root that 'tastes like oysters'.