1. A hard-shelled seed consisting of an edible kernel or meat enclosed in a woody or leathery shell
   "The trail mix contained a variety of edible nuts";
   - edible nut
    
2. A large hard-shelled seed
   "The squirrel cracked open the nut with its sharp teeth"
    
3. A small (usually square or hexagonal) metal block with internal screw thread to be fitted onto a bolt
   "He tightened the nut to secure the wheel in place"
    
4. [informal] A whimsically eccentric person
   "The neighbourhood nut was known for his outlandish conspiracy theories";
   - crackpot [informal], crank, nutcase [informal], fruitcake [informal], screwball [informal]
    
5. [informal] Someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction
   "a car nut";
   - addict, freak, junkie [informal], junky [informal]
    
6. [vulgar] One of the two male reproductive glands that produce spermatozoa and secrete androgens
   "she kicked him in the nuts and got away";
   - testis, testicle
    
7. [informal] The upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains
   "he stuck his nut out the window";
   - head, caput [technical], bean [informal], bonce [Brit, informal], noodle [informal], noggin [informal], dome [informal], nob [informal], napper [Brit, informal], skull [informal], melon [informal]
    
8. [US, informal] The amount of money necessary to set up or run some venture
   "The nut for starting the business was higher than expected"
    
9. Half the width of an em
   - en

1. Gather nuts
   "We nutted in the forest last autumn"
    
2. [Brit, informal] Hit with the head
   "The angry player nutted the referee"

1. The ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky and heavens
   "Nut was often depicted as a woman arched over the earth"

Derived forms: nuts, nutting, nutted

Type of: block, collect, dag [Austral, NZ, informal], eccentric, Egyptian deity, enthusiast, external body part, flake [N. Amer, informal], garner, gather, geek [informal], gonad, human head, linear measure, linear unit, male reproductive gland, oddball [informal], partisan, partizan [rare], pull together, seed, sex gland

Part of: animal, animate being, body, em, family jewels [slang], lunch box [Brit, slang], male genital organ, male genitalia, male genitals, male reproductive system, nut and bolt, organic structure, pica, pica em

Encyclopedia: Nut