vegetable

animal, vegetable, or mineral

In the game 20 Questions, these are three categories that the answer could potentially fit into. Well, what is it? Animal, vegetable, or mineral?
See also: mineral

vegetable

1. slang A person who is in a state of only partial conscious arousal, rather than being truly aware of and able to interact with their surroundings. A reference to the medical term "persistent vegetative state" used to describe such a condition. Promise me that you will take me off life support if I ever become a vegetable after an accident or something. So, what's the prognosis, doc? Is he going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life, or is there a chance that he can recover?
2. slang By extension, a person who is extremely and persistently slothful, intellectually unstimulated, or physically unfit. I just feel like mainstream television is aimed at keeping us all as a population of vegetables. I turned into quite a vegetable when I was stuck in the house with a shattered leg for two months.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

vegetable

1. mod. alcohol intoxicated. Helen drank till she was totally vegetable.
2. n. someone who is brain-dead; someone who acts brain-dead; a person almost totally destroyed by drugs. Cable TV is turning me into a vegetable.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

animal, vegetable, or mineral?

“20 Questions” was a popular parlor game in which players tried to guess the answer by asking no more than twenty questions. The person who answered the questions gave the players the initial hint of whether the subject was animal, vegetable, or mineral. The game's becoming the format of a very successful radio and then television quiz show beginning in the early 1940s spread the opening hint into general use. Anyone who innocently began a query with “I have a question” was liable to be met with “Is the answer animal, vegetable, or mineral?”
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • animal, vegetable, or mineral
  • animal, vegetable, or mineral?
  • mineral
  • anyone's game
  • play Russian roulette
  • Russian roulette, to play
  • Russian roulette
  • thin section
  • veggie
  • veggy
References in periodicals archive
The ground floor of the vegetable market was completely covered in muck during the flood, leading the vegetable venders to discontinue their business in the market.
Future Market Insights' report, titled "IQF Vegetable Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026," estimates that the global market for IQF vegetables is presently valued over US$ 1,288.3 Mn, recording global sales of a little over 16,900 tonnes of IQF vegetable in the world.
The area under vegetable cultivation excluding potato and sweet potato but including onion, garlic, chilies was 0.381 mha (about 1.67% of the total cropped area), producing about 4.06 m ton of vegetables.
Fruit and vegetable intakes and bone mineral status: a cross-sectional study in 5 age and sex cohorts.
According to the government, a serving is 1/2 cup of vegetables or 3/4 cup (6 oz.) of vegetable juice.
If taste is your priority, I think Amy's Vegetable Lasagna is the best choice; in fact, I think it tastes better than conventional counterparts like Stouffer's.
That's what makes American Fruit Grower magazine, now in its 126th year, its sister publication, Western Fruit Grower, and American Vegetable Grower magazine--entering its 100th year--the established national voices for America's fruit and vegetable producers, says Joe Monahan, Managing Dir for the National Horticulture Group at its parent company, Meister Media Worldwide.
Diesel's notion of using vegetable oil didn't take off until recently.
* The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra was formed in 1998.
The ability to mill and cultivate cereal grains caused the major substitution of fresh fruits and vegetables with flour-based food.
Improving the safety of fresh fruit and vegetables W.
Vegetables, cut and edible flowers, berries, eggs and honey.
has added 40 percent more letters to its classic Vegetable soup, known by millions as 'Alphabet Soup."
Vegetable oils are moving from the kitchen table to the car engine
[USPRwire, Thu Nov 01 2018] Vegetable carbon is also known by the name of vegetable black, carbo medicinalis vegetabilis, and carbon black.