Definitions

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

  • noun An East Asian vine (Pueraria lobata) in the pea family, having compound leaves and clusters of reddish-purple flowers. It is grown for fodder, forage, and root starch, and is a widespread weed in the southeast United States.

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

  • noun An Asian vine grown as a root starch and sometimes considered a noxious weed.

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

  • noun fast-growing vine from eastern Asia having tuberous starchy roots and hairy trifoliate leaves and racemes of purple flowers followed by long hairy pods containing many seeds; grown for fodder and forage and root starch; widespread in the southern United States

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Japanese kuzu.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Japanese クズ (, kuzu). The spelling kudzu (instead of kuzu) is due to the historical kana orthography that was in use at the time the term was borrowed into English.

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Examples

  • There's a plant known as kudzu, which is widely hated in the south because it takes over cropland.

    Archive 2010-02-15 Joe Konrath 2010

  • Wrapped in kudzu and soaked in whiskey, his stories make me homesick, make me crave fried okra and sweetened ice tea.

    March 2004 2004

  • Wrapped in kudzu and soaked in whiskey, his stories make me homesick, make me crave fried okra and sweetened ice tea.

    Yonder Stands a Writer 2004

  • Can you imagine how beautiful Mount Garcia (to say nothing of El Chante) would be covered in kudzu?

    Lake Level 11-29-04 2004

  • The kudzu is thick and green, the woods dark and full of secrets.

    Deep South: Summary and book reviews of Deep South by Nevada Barr. 2000

  • "This is the first report investigating the potential for long-term kudzu supplementation to decrease these interacting factors of the metabolic syndrome in an animal model," stated the researchers.

    NutraIngredients RSS 2009

  • "This is the first report investigating the potential for long-term kudzu supplementation to decrease these interacting factors of the metabolic syndrome in an animal model," stated the researchers.

    AP-FoodTechnology RSS 2009

  • He's running what NPR's Frank James has characterized as a "kudzu campaign."

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • The second issue is what we've come to call kudzu: the spread of comment threads from a small number of commenters that are dozens of entries in length and thousands of words long.

    Savage Minds 2010

  • Google News keeps spreading as rapidly as kudzu - Image by SESConferenceSeries via Flickr Google News is like kudzu, which is known as "the vine that ate the South" because of its out-of-control growth in the Southeastern United States.

    Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now 2010

Comments

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  • fast-growing vine from eastern Asia having tuberous starchy roots and hairy trifoliate leaves and racemes of purple flowers followed by long hairy pods containing many seeds; grown for fodder and forage and root starch; widespread in the southern United States.

    October 31, 2007

  • Widespread? Widespread? Try COVERS THE REGION.

    ;)

    By the way, skipvia, this really belongs on your Southern Words list: "watchin' the kudzu grow."

    November 1, 2007

  • You can watch it grow. It's crazy stuff, that kudzu.

    November 1, 2007

  • I believe it's actually illegal to plant in some states.

    November 2, 2007

  • OH MY WORD, there are definitions on the word pages!!! Every time I take a day or two off, the place completely changes. Our little Wordie is growing up so fast.

    November 2, 2007

  • In the South, the forensic investigators can calculate time of death by the density of the kudzu on the corpse.

    December 11, 2007

  • kudzua great metaphor for consumerism

    December 5, 2008