GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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1.       
   Pear (pâr), n. [OE. pere, AS. peru, L. pirum: cf. F. poire.  Cf. Perry.] (Bot.) The fleshy pome, or fruit, of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus communis), cultivated in many varieties in temperate climates; also, the tree which bears this fruit. See Pear family, below.
   
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   Pear blight. (a) (Bot.) A name of two distinct diseases of pear trees, both causing a destruction of the branches, viz., that caused by a minute insect (Xyleborus pyri), and that caused by the freezing of the sap in winter. A. J. Downing. (b) (Zool.) A very small beetle (Xyleborus pyri) whose larvæ bore in the twigs of pear trees and cause them to wither. -- Pear family (Bot.), a suborder of rosaceous plants (Pomeæ), characterized by the calyx tube becoming fleshy in fruit, and, combined with the ovaries, forming a pome. It includes the apple, pear, quince, service berry, and hawthorn. -- Pear gauge (Physics), a kind of gauge for measuring the exhaustion of an air-pump receiver; -- so called because consisting in part of a pear-shaped glass vessel. -- Pear shell (Zool.), any marine gastropod shell of the genus Pyrula, native of tropical seas; -- so called from the shape. -- Pear slug (Zool.), the larva of a sawfly which is very injurious to the foliage of the pear tree.
   
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