Definition of "nectarine"

Prune Fruit-trees, and Vines as yet; For now is your Season to bind, plash, naile, and dresse, without danger of Frost: This to be understood of the most tender and delicate Wall-fruit, not finished before; do this before the buds and bearers grow turgid; and yet in the Nectarine and like delicate Mural-fruit, the later your Pruning, the better, whatever has been, and still is, the contrary custom.

1670, John Evelyn, Sylva, or, A Discourse of Forest-Trees to which is annexed Pomona, or, An appendix concerning Fruit-Trees in Relation to Cider, London: Jo. Martyn & Ja. Allestry, “Kalendarium Hortense,” p. 10

What wond’rous Life in this I lead! / Ripe Apples drop about my head; / The Luscious Clusters of the Vine / Upon my Mouth do crush their Wine; / The Nectaren, and curious Peach, / Into my hands themselves do reach; / Stumbling on Melons, as I pass, / Insnar’d with Flow’rs, I fall on Grass.

1681, Andrew Marvell, “The Garden,” stanza 5, in Miscellaneous Poems, London: Nonesuch, 1923, pp. 49-50

Guava’s, a Fruit as large as a Pipin, with Seeds and Stones in it, of an uncouth aſtringing Taſt, tho’ never ſo much be ſaid in Commendation of it, at the West-Indies, it is common for Cræolians, (who has taſted both,) to give it a Preference to Peach or Nectarine, no amazing Thing when Men whose Taſts are ſo degenerated, as to prefer a Toad in a Shell, (as Ward calls Turtle,) to Venison […]

1724, Charles Johnson, “Of Captain Howel Davis, and His Crew”, in A General History of the Pyrates, […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for, and sold by T. Warner, […], page 199

So that reading constantly, and thus using yourself to write, and enjoying besides the Benefit of a good Memory, every thing you heard or read, became your own; and not only so, but was improved by passing thro’ more salubrious Ducts and Vehicles; like some fine Fruit grafted upon a common Free-stock, whose more exuberant Juices serve to bring to quicker and greater Perfection the downy Peach, or the smooth Nectarine with its crimson Blush.

1742, Samuel Richardson, Pamela, London: S. Richardson, 4th edition, Volume 3, Letter 12, p. 53

When you see a dish of fruit at dessert, you sometimes set your affections upon one particular peach or nectarine, watch it with some anxiety as it comes round the table, and feel quite a sensible disappointment when it is taken by some one else.

1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque

He would have some discreet men to disswade them, after the fury of passion is a little spent, or by absence allaied; for it is intempestive at first, to give counsell, as it is, to comfort parents when their children are in that instant departed; to no purpose to prescribe Narcoticks, Cordialls, Nectarines, potions, […]

1628 Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cripps, 3rd edition, Part 3, Section 2, Member 5, Subsection 3, p. 509

[…] to their supper-fruits they fell,Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughsYielded them, side-long as they sat reclineOn the soft downy bank damasked with flowers […]

1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost‎, Book 4, lines 329-332