sweet potato

a plant, Ipomoea batatas, of the morning glory family, grown for its sweet, edible, tuberous roots.

the root itself, used as a vegetable.

Informal. ocarina.

Origin of sweet potato

An Americanism dating back to 1740–50

cassava sweet potato yam

Her eyes soon dropped, and her attention was attracted by the yellow leaves on the sweet-potato vine.

The Hazeley Family |A. E. Johnson
Also we may claim the squash pie and the sweet-potato pie, both of which merit the highest encomiums.

The Art of Entertaining |M. E. W. Sherwood
Papa found a little bug this morning on the sweet-potato vines.

Harper's Young People, June 22, 1880 |Various
Sweet-potato pie, an' burnt on one side—the side thet's left.

Moriah's Mourning and Other Half-Hour Sketches |Ruth McEnery Stuart

All the chairs were occupied, and cigarette smoke drifted about the green trailers of a sweet-potato that grew across the beams.

Kit Musgrave's Luck |Harold Bindloss

sweet potato

a convolvulaceous twining plant, Ipomoea batatas, of tropical America, cultivated in the tropics for its edible fleshy yellow root

the root of this plant

Also called (NZ): kumara