green

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
green/ɡriːn/

▶adjective

• 1 of the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass.

• 2 covered with grass or other vegetation.

• 3 (of a plant or fruit) young or unripe.

  ■ (of food, wood, pottery, or leather) in its untreated or original state; not cured, seasoned, fired, etc.

• 4 inexperienced or naive.

• 5 pale and sickly-looking.

• 6 (usu. Green) concerned with or supporting protection of the environment as a political principle.

• 7 (of a ski run) of the lowest level of difficulty.

▶noun

• 1 green colour, pigment, or material.

  ■ green foliage or growing plants.

• 2 a piece of public grassy land, especially in the centre of a village.

  ■ an area of smooth, very short grass immediately surrounding a hole on a golf course.

• 3 (greens) green vegetables.

• 4 (usu. Green) a member or supporter of an environmentalist group or party.

▶verb

• 1 make or become green.

• 2 make less harmful to the environment.

– phrases
the green-eyed monster jealousy personified. [from Shakespeare's Othello (iii. 3. 166).]
green with envy very envious or jealous.

– derivatives
greenish adjective,
greenly adverb,
greenness noun,
greeny adjective.

– origin OE grēne (adj.), grēnian (v.), of Gmc origin; rel. to grass and grow.