Produce, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Produced; p. pr. & vb. n. Producing.]
Etymology: [L. producere, productum, to bring forward, beget, produce; pro forward, forth + ducere to lead. See Duke.]
1. To bring forward; to lead forth; to offer to view or notice; to exhibit; to show; as, to produce a witness or evidence in court. Produce your cause, saith the Lord. Isa. xli. 21. Your parents did not produce you much into the world. Swift.
2. To bring forth, as young, or as a natural product or growth; to give birth to; to bear; to generate; to propagate; to yield; to furnish; as, the earth produces grass; trees produce fruit; the clouds produce rain. This soil produces all sorts of palm trees. Sandys. [They] produce prodigious births of body or mind. Milton. The greatest jurist his country had produced. Macaulay.
3. To cause to be or to happen; to originate, as an effect or result; to bring about; as, disease produces pain; vice produces misery.
4. To give being or form to; to manufacture; to make; as, a manufacturer produces excellent wares.
4 more senses
5. To yield or furnish; to gain; as, money at interest produces an income; capital produces profit.
6. To draw out; to extend; to lengthen; to prolong; as, to produce a man's life to threescore. Sir T. Browne.
7. (Geom.)
To extend; -- applied to a line, surface, or solid; as, to produce a side of a triangle.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Produce, v. i.
To yield or furnish appropriate offspring, crops, effects, consequences, or results.
Produce, n.
That which is produced, brought forth, or yielded; product; yield; proceeds; result of labor, especially of agricultural labors; hence, specifically, agricultural products.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for produce; he lists it under allege, harvest.
Where he writes about it:
To produce is to bring forward, as, for instance, papers or persons. — from allege
Adduce is not used of persons; of them we say introduce or produce. — from allege
When an alleged criminal is brought to trial, the counsel on either side are accustomed to advance a theory, and adduce the strongest possible evidence in its support; they will produce documents and witnesses, cite precedents, assign reasons, introduce suggestions, offer pleas. — from allege
Produce is a collective word for all that is produced in farming or gardening, and is, in modern usage, almost wholly restricted to this sense; we speak of produce collectively, but of a product or various products; vegetables, fruits, eggs, butter, etc., may be termed farm-produce, or the products of the farm. — from harvest
Product is a word of wider application than produce; we speak of the products of manufacturing, the products of thought, or the product obtained by multiplying one number by another. — from harvest
The word proceeds is chiefly used of the return from an investment: we speak of the produce of a farm, but of the proceeds of the money invested in farming. — from harvest