Definition of "vanilla"

vanilla

/vəˈnɪlə/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural vanillas
1. (countable) Any tropical, climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food or in perfumes.
2. (countable) The fruit or bean of the vanilla plant.
3. (uncountable) The extract of the fruit of the vanilla plant.
4. (uncountable) The distinctive fragrant flavour/flavor characteristic of vanilla extract.
5. (uncountable) Any artificially produced homologue of vanilla extract, principally vanillin produced from lignin from the paper industry or from petrochemicals.
6. (countable, sexuality, slang) Someone who is not into fetishism.
7. (uncountable, gaming, slang) An unmodded version of a game.
8. A yellowish-white colour, like that of vanilla ice cream.
adjective
comparative more vanilla, superlative most vanilla
1. (of flavor, etc.) Of vanilla.
  Quotations
  A mass of folders and binders. One, vanilla in colour, catches her eye.
  2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton
2. (colloquial, chiefly computing, retronym) Standard, plain, default, unmodified, basic.
  Quotations
  BBCFiles is a BBC file converter that converts between some of the various types of files used by BBC emulators on Acorn & PC formats. It supports 6502Em style applications & scripts, /ssd dfs disc images (supporting watford double catalogue), vanilla directories, /zip of bbc files with /inf files (with limitations) and directory of bbc files with /inf files.
  2001, Michael Foot, “BeebIt 0.32 and BBCFiles 0.29 released”, in comp.sys.acorn.announce (Usenet)
3. (sexuality) Not kinky, not involving BDSM.
  Quotations
  An uncharacteristically vanilla threesome and non-cute realist rendering - derived paradoxically from tracing drawings rather than photographs.
  2006, Felix Lance Falkon, Gay Art: A Historic Collection, page 136
  While Dominick was more of a vanilla kind of a guy himself, he wasn't a total dunce when it came to the kinkier sides of things.
  2010, Chloe Stowe, Hard Water, page 37
  Sebastian could never do that, be in a marriage with a vanilla woman.
  2014, Christina Thacher, The Negotiation: A BDSM Romance
4. Plain; conventional; unimaginative.