1. Eaten fresh as shell beans or dried
   "She prepared a traditional New Year's dish of black-eye beans for good luck";
   - black-eyed pea [N. Amer], cowpea, black-eyed bean [Brit]
    
2. Fruit or seed of the cowpea plant
   "She soaked the black-eye beans overnight before cooking";
   - cowpea, black-eyed pea [N. Amer], black-eyed bean [Brit]
    
3. A climbing or sprawling annual legume native to Africa, widely cultivated for its edible beans, animal fodder, and soil improvement
   "black-eye beans thrive in the hot summers of the American South";
   - cowpea, cowpea plant, black-eyed pea [N. Amer], Vigna unguiculata, Vigna sinensis, black-eyed bean [Brit]

Derived forms: black-eye beans

Type of: legume, leguminous plant

Part of: genus Vigna, Vigna

Encyclopedia: Black-eye bean