Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of plants, of the order Simarubaceæ and tribe Simarubeæ.
  • noun [lowercase] A drug, also called bitter-wood, consisting of the wood of Picræna (Quassia) excelsa, and of two or three related trees; also, a medicinal preparation from these woods.

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

  • noun The wood of several tropical American trees of the order Simarubeæ, as Quassia amara, Picræna excelsa, and Simaruba amara. It is intensely bitter, and is used in medicine and sometimes as a substitute for hops in making beer.

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

  • noun handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark
  • noun a bitter compound used as an insecticide and tonic and vermifuge; extracted from the wood and bark of trees of the genera Quassia and Picrasma

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