Meaning & use
pulp
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Meanings
noununcountable
A soft, wet, thick mass of crushed material.
Grammar: Often in the phrase reduced to a pulp: the paper was beaten into pulp.
Patterns
- reduce something to a pulp
- beat someone to a pulp
The ripe pears turned to pulp in the bag.
Old newspapers are soaked and ground into pulp to make recycled paper.
The mixer mashed the vegetables to a smooth pulp.
noununcountable
The soft, juicy inside of a fruit or vegetable, or the soft tissue inside a tooth.
Grammar: Uncountable: orange pulp, tooth pulp.
Patterns
- the pulp of something
She scooped the pulp out of the passion fruit.
Some juices keep the pulp, and some do not.
The dentist said the infection had reached the pulp of the tooth.
noununcountableinformaldisapproving
Cheap, sensational books or magazines, usually printed on rough paper.
Grammar: Often used before another noun: pulp fiction, pulp magazine.
He collects old pulp magazines with lurid covers.
The author wrote pulp for a few cents a word.
Critics once dismissed detective stories as pulp.
verbtransitive
To crush or beat something into a soft mass, or to destroy unsold books.
Grammar: Takes an object: pulp the fruit, pulp the old copies.
Patterns
- pulp something
The publisher decided to pulp the unsold copies.
Pulp the tomatoes with a fork before adding the spices.
The machine pulps old cardboard for reuse.
Word forms
| plural | pulps |
|---|---|
| third person singular | pulps |
| past tense | pulped |
| -ing form | pulping |
Common combinations
- beat to a pulp
- The storm beat the flowers to a pulp.
- wood pulp
- Paper is often made from wood pulp.
- fruit pulp
- The jam contains real fruit pulp.
- pulp fiction
- She reads pulp fiction on the train.
- paper pulp
- Paper pulp was spread out to dry.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mush
- Mush is an informal word for a soft, shapeless mass, usually food, while pulp can be a material or fruit flesh.
- paste
- Paste is a smooth, thick mixture made on purpose, while pulp is often coarse and left over from crushing.
- mash
- Mash suggests crushed food such as potatoes, whereas pulp has a broader use.
- flesh
- Flesh names the soft edible part of fruit but does not suggest it has been crushed.
Word family
- pulpy adjective
- soft and wet like pulp
- pulped adjective
- crushed into a soft mass
Commonly confused: pulp or pulse? pulp or pulpit?
pulp vs pulse
Pulse is a heartbeat or the seeds of beans and peas. Pulp is the soft inner part of fruit or a crushed mass.
pulp vs pulpit
A pulpit is a raised platform in a church where a preacher speaks. It begins like pulp but is unrelated.
Practice
On a carton of orange juice, the label says 'with pulp'. What does that mean?
Choose one answer.
Pulp is the soft juicy flesh of a fruit, so juice with pulp keeps bits of it. Sugar, concentrate and seeds are different matters.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pulp”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.