Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several North American poplar trees, especially Populus deltoides, which has triangular leaves and a tuft of cottony hairs on the seeds.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The name of several species of the genus Populus the United States, from the light cottony tuft at the base of the numerous small seeds.
  • noun In Australia, a tree of the aster family, Bedfordia salicina: so called from the cottony under-surface of the leaves, or its hard, brownish, mottled wood. Called dogwood and honeywood in Tasmania.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) An American tree of the genus Populus or poplar, having the seeds covered with abundant cottonlike hairs; esp., the Populus monilifera and Populus angustifolia of the Western United States.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A number of species of tree in the genus Populus (poplars), typically growing along watercourses.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of several North American trees of the genus Populus having a tuft of cottony hairs on the seed
  • noun American basswood of the Allegheny region

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cotton +‎ wood

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