Vanilla

12 definitions retrieved

Vanilla \Va*nil"la\, n. [NL., fr. Sp. vainilla, dim. of Sp.
vaina a sheath, a pod, L. vagina; because its grains, or
seeds, are contained in little pods.]
[1913 Webster]

1. (Bot.) A genus of climbing orchidaceous plants, natives of
tropical America.
[1913 Webster]

2. The long podlike capsules of Vanilla planifolia, and
Vanilla claviculata, remarkable for their delicate and
agreeable odor, for the volatile, odoriferous oil
extracted from them; also, the flavoring extract made from
the capsules, extensively used in confectionery,
perfumery, etc.
[1913 Webster]

Note: As a medicine, vanilla is supposed to possess powers
analogous to valerian, while, at the same time, it is
far more grateful.
[1913 Webster]

Cuban vanilla, a sweet-scented West Indian composite shrub
(Eupatorium Dalea).

Vanilla bean, the long capsule of the vanilla plant.

Vanilla grass. Same as Holy grass, under Holy.
[1913 Webster]

vanilla
adj 1: flavored with vanilla extract; "he liked vanilla ice
cream"

2: plain and without any extras or adornments; "the most common
type of bond is the straight or plain vanilla bond"; "the
basic car is known as the vanilla version"
n 1: any of numerous climbing plants of the genus Vanilla having
fleshy leaves and clusters of large waxy highly fragrant
white or green or topaz flowers

2: a flavoring prepared from vanilla beans macerated in alcohol
(or imitating vanilla beans) [syn: vanilla, {vanilla
extract}]

3: a distinctive fragrant flavor characteristic of vanilla beans

vanilla

1. (Default flavour of ice cream in the US) Ordinary
flavour, standard. When used of food, very often does not
mean that the food is flavoured with vanilla extract! For
example, "vanilla wonton soup" means ordinary wonton soup, as
opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied to hardware and
software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 Unix can't run on a
vanilla PDP 11/34." Also used to orthogonalise chip
nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a
7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from
canonical in that the latter means "default", whereas
vanilla simply means "ordinary". For example, when hackers go
to a chinese restaurant, hot-and-sour wonton soup is the
canonical wonton soup to get (because that is what most of
them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla wonton
soup.

[Jargon File]

(1994-11-04)

2. Snobol4 by Catspaw, Inc. for MS-DOS.

(ftp://cs.arizona.edu/snobol4/vanilla.arc)

(1992-02-05)

vanilla
adj.

[from the default flavor of ice cream in the U.S.] Ordinary flavor,
standard. When used of food, very often does not mean that the food
is flavored with vanilla extract! For example, vanilla wonton soup
means ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup.
Applied to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 Unix can't
run on a vanilla 11/34." Also used to orthogonalize chip
nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as
distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from canonical in
that the latter means `default', whereas vanilla simply means
`ordinary'. For example, when hackers go on a great-wall,
hot-and-sour soup is the canonical soup to get (because that is
what most of them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla
(wonton) soup.