garlic

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
garlic/ˈɡɑːlɪk/

▶noun

• 1 a strong-smelling pungent-tasting bulb, used as a flavouring in cookery.

• 2 the central Asian plant, closely related to the onion, which produces garlic. [Allium sativum.]

  ■ used in names of plants with a similar smell or flavour, e.g. wild garlic.

– derivatives
garlicky adjective.

– origin OE gārlēac, from gār ‘spear’ (because the shape of a clove resembles the head of a spear) + lēac ‘leek’.