noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A proteolytic enzyme in papaya fruit which can be used to tenderize meat. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   a proteolytic enzyme obtained from the unripe papaya; used as a meat tenderizer wordnet

Etymology

Attested since the late 1800s. From papaya + -in.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.