nut

«nut» in Mova's school dictionary: a fruit with a hard shell and a seed inside that you can… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a nut, nuts)

meaning for a pupil

1) A nut is a fruit with a hard shell and a seed inside that you can often eat, like a walnut or hazelnut. tree →

2) A nut is a small piece of metal with a hole in it that screws onto a bolt to hold things together. tree →

3) (Informal) A nut is a person who is very keen on something, like a football nut, or who acts in a silly, crazy way. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, nuts are seeds of trees; squirrels collect and bury them, and some grow into new trees. In health and safety, some people have a nut allergy that can be very dangerous, so many schools are nut-free; never share food with someone who has an allergy. In design and technology, nuts and bolts hold things together. Phrases: «nut allergy», «nut-free», «nuts and bolts» (basic facts), «a hard nut to crack» (a hard problem), «go nuts» (go wild), «in a nutshell» (very briefly).

examples

• Squirrels bury nuts for the winter. tree →
• Crack the shell to get the nut out. tree →
• Our school is nut-free because some children have allergies. tree →
• My sister has a nut allergy and carries an EpiPen. tree →
• Tighten the nut on the bolt with a spanner. tree →
• He's a real football nut. tree →
• This puzzle is a hard nut to crack. tree →
• In a nutshell, we lost the match. tree →
• So Ib held the nut very tight. tree →

note

Plural nuts. Peanuts are actually legumes, like peas, not true nuts, but they count for nut allergies. «Nuts» (adjective, informal) means crazy. If someone with a nut allergy has trouble breathing, get an adult and call emergency services immediately.

In the corpora

• Wild chimpanzees make tools: they fish for termites with stripped twigs, crack nuts with stones and use leaves as sponges.
• Real squirrels bury nuts and forget many of them, so the nuts grow into new trees.
• Agoutis open hard Brazil nut pods and bury spare seeds, and the forgotten seeds grow into new Brazil nut trees.
• Squirrels are rodents whose front teeth grow all the time, about fifteen centimetres a year, and gnawing hard nuts wears them down.
• Some crows in Japan drop nuts at pedestrian crossings for cars to crack and pick them up safely when the lights stop the traffic.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «nut» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.