Widely assumed to be a marketing term from grape +‎ fruit, an allusion to the supposed grapelike clusters of fruit on the tree,^[1] early 19th c. Ciardi proposes another theory: one of the pomelo's botanical names is Citrus grandis, meaning "great citrus [fruit]", due to the size of its fruit. A new pomelo variety might first have been called a "greatfruit" (see greatfruit), and through the process of assimilation, the word came to be pronounced "grapefruit".

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹeɪpfɹuːt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹeɪpfɹut/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: grape‧fruit

grapefruit (countable and uncountable, plural grapefruits or grapefruit)

1. The tree of the species Citrus paradisi, a hybrid of Citrus maxima and sweet orange.
   • 1932, The Farmer, page 64:

     Results have begun to come in and at Comfort Castle this month I spent a useful and happy half day carting round 8 children in my car to their homes where we all helped to fill in with good soil and manure, their excellently dug holes and planted the grapefruit.

3. The large spherical tart fruit produced by this tree.

   Synonyms: pomelo, shaddock, forbidden fruit

   • 2002, “Fruits”, in Encyclopedia of Foods: A Guide to Healthy Nutrition, Academic Press, →ISBN, part II (Encyclopedia of Foods), page 176, column 3:

     Grapefruit is high in vitamin C. The pink and red varieties contain vitamin A (betacarotene) and lycopene, an antioxidant that may help prevent cancer. Grapefruit contains a chemical that can alter intestinal absorption of some medications and lead to higher than normal blood levels of some drugs and potential problems.

   • 2002, NLRB Advice Memorandum Reporter, Labor Relations Press, page 100:

     Once loaded by Canaveral, the grapefruit are transported to Japan, where the shipments are unloaded by employees of Japanese stevedoring companies. The grapefruit are then received by the Japanese importers.

4. (vulgar, usually in the plural) Large breasts; by extension, a woman with large breasts.

   Cupping her grapefruits in her hands, she closed her eyes and imagined her date grasping them, exploring their size, weight, and firmness.

   • 1993, Leandra Logan, Joyride‎^[1], Harlequin Books, page 162:

     Dan hauled her to the carpet as she fell limp over him. She stretched out on her back, her grapefruits, fitted snugly into her sturdy cotton bra, rock hard under his nose.

   • 1997, Paul Dennithorne Johnston, “Boiling Creek: The G.S. Detective, Part II”, in Delphus David Bourland, Paul Dennithorne Johnston, editors, E-Prime III!: A Third Anthology‎^[2], International Society for General Semantics, page 357:

     In walked my supposedly dead niece Esmerelda wearing shorts that didn't exist and a top that made her grapefruits look like honeydews, if you get my drift.

   • 2000, Irving Shulman, Harlow: An Intimate Biography‎^[3], iUniverse, page 122:

     He raised his hand again. "If you scratch my face and I give you a black eye—who's worse off? Because what've you got besides a pair of grapefruits and a pretty face? So let me show you something else I bought."

   • 2016, Andrew Matheson, Sick On You: The Disastrous Story of the Hollywood Brats, the Greatest Band You've Never Heard Of‎^[4], Penguin, page 184:

     A new pair of grapefruits arrives with yet another tray of drinks. She says that they were sent by someone at another table and points a fingernail in the direction of our benefactor.

   • 2020, Nick Hughes, Bahama Boyz‎^[5], Troubador Publishing Ltd, page 140:

     I lay there for about twenty seconds trying to get my wind back, until slowly and painfully I picked myself up as best I could and with as much class as I could muster in the circumstances, but keeping my eyes on her grapefruits – the ones in the bag, I hasten to add.

   • 2016, David James, “A Chance Meeting, Mary Jane”, in Love and Sex at the Post Office‎^[6], Xlibris Corporation:

     I walked up behind her and pushed my cucumber hard against her booty. Kissed her on the neck and felt those grapefruits. Our mouths met and our tongues also. Strong sexual desire consumed us. I pulled the straps of her outfit over her shoulders and I was soon flavoring her grapefruits, while she unzipped my pants and tasted my cucumber. Soon, we were both naked in the bed. My cucumber had found her orchard.

• (tree): grapefruit tree; Citrus × paradisi; Citrus sinensis × Citrus grandis, Citrus sinensis × Citrus maxima
• (breasts): see Thesaurus:breasts

• fruit
  • citrus

• grapefruit on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Citrus paradisi on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Citrus paradisi on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Category:Grapefruits on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

grapefruit

Wikipedia ^nl

Borrowed from English grapefruit.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡreːp.frut/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: grape‧fruit

grapefruit m (plural grapefruits, diminutive grapefruitje n)

1. grapefruit (tree of the species Citrus paradisi)
2. grapefruit (fruit produced by the tree of the species Citrus paradisi)

• pompelmoes

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁa.pə.fʁɥi/

• Audio:

  (file)

grapefruit m (plural grapefruits)

1. (Switzerland) grapefruit

   Synonym: pamplemousse

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡrejpfruːt]

grapefruit m inan (relational adjective grapefruitový)

1. grapefruit

• “grapefruit”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025