turnip

From turnepe, probably from turn + Middle English nepe, from Old English nǣp, from Latin nāpus.[1] The component turn may be due to the round shape of the plant as though turned on a lathe, or because it must be turned and twisted to be harvested. Cognate to neep. See also parsnip.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɜː.nɪp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɜ˞.nɪp/

• Audio (US)

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turnip (plural turnips)

1. The white root of a yellow-flowered plant, Brassica rapa, grown as a vegetable and as fodder for cattle.
2. (Scotland, Ireland, Northern England, Cornwall, Atlantic Canada) The yellow root of a related plant, the swede or Brassica napus.
3. (dated) A large, heavy pocket watch, so called because its profile resembled the vegetable.

• (Brassica rapa): summer turnip, white turnip (Cornwall, Scotland)
• (Brassica napus): rutabaga (North America), swede (Ireland, Northern England, Scotland), tumshie (Scotland)

• fall off the turnip truck
• Swedish turnip (Brassica napus)
• turnip watch
• turnip flea beetle (Phyllotreta undulata)
• turnip fly (Delia radicum)
• turnipy
• Turnip yellow mosaic virus

• rutabaga
• swede
• turnip greens

turnip (third-person singular simple present turnips, present participle turniping or turnipping, simple past and past participle turniped or turnipped)

1. (transitive) To plant with turnips.
   • 1803, Agricultural Magazine (volume 9, page 32)

     This identical field has been turniped before, and to good account, in a favourable winter.

2. (transitive) To feed or graze (livestock) on turnips.
   • 1869, Sheep: Their Breeds, Management, and Diseases (page 328)

     The Leicesters and half-breds are purchased by farmers who keep no breeding stock: they are well turniped during the winter, and clipped and fattened in the following season.

   • 1898, John Wrightson, Sheep: Breeds and Management, page 86:

     This system of turniping is found to encourage the growth and muscular development of young stock.

• Turpin, turpin