Olives

1. a small oval fruit with a hard stone and bitter flesh, green when unripe and bluish black when ripe, used as food and as a source of oil.

   a dish of cauliflower with black olives

   a cucumber and olive salad

2. the small evergreen tree which produces olives and which has narrow leaves with silvery undersides, native to warm regions of the Old World.
3. a greyish-green colour like that of an unripe olive.

   shades of gold, olive, and black

4. a slice of beef or veal made into a roll with stuffing inside and stewed.
5. a marine mollusc with a smooth, roughly cylindrical shell which is typically brightly coloured.
6. each of a pair of smooth, oval swellings in the medulla oblongata.
7. a metal ring or fitting which is tightened under a threaded nut to form a seal, as in a compression joint.

Middle English: via Old French from Latin oliva, from Greek elaia, from elaion ‘oil’.