a plant having a large edible head of crowded white flower buds
compact head of white undeveloped flowers
Brassica oleracea var. botrytis, an annual variety of cabbage, of which the cluster of young flower stalks and buds is eaten as a vegetable.
To (cause to) swell up like a cauliflower ear.
The word cauliflower comes from a 16th-century phrase meaning "cole-flower," combining an Old English term for cabbage with the word for flower. It was later adjusted to sound more like its Latin roots and is related to similar terms in French and Italian.