noun
potato
puh-TAY-toh
noun
1
A starchy vegetable that grows underground as the tuber of the potato plant.
"We baked a potato for each person at dinner."
"He peeled a huge pile of potatoes for the stew."
2
(informal) A device or thing considered low quality, such as a poor camera or a weak computer.
"Sorry for the blurry photo, I took it on a real potato of a phone."
How to Use Potato
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe common root vegetable — or, informally, a way of calling something (like a cheap camera) low quality.
Common pairings
baked potato
mashed potato
potato chips
couch potato
Word Forms
potatoed past tense, potatoes plural, potatoes singular
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We baked a _____ for each person at dinner.
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish patata, which itself came from the Taíno word batata, meaning sweet potato.