The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pear \Pear\ (p[^a]r), 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
larv[ae] bore in the twigs of pear trees and cause them
to wither.
Pear family (Bot.), a suborder of rosaceous plants
(Pome[ae]), 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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