Definitions

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

  • noun An evergreen vine (Piper betle) of South and Southeast Asia, having heart-shaped or ovate leaves that are used to wrap betel nuts.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A species of pepper, Piper betle, a creeping, or climbing plant, a native of the East Indies, natural order Piperaceæ.
  • noun A piece of betel-nut.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A species of pepper (Piper betle), the leaves of which are chewed, with the areca or betel nut and a little shell lime, by the inhabitants of the East Indies. It is a woody climber with ovate many-nerved leaves.

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

  • noun Either of two plants often used in combination

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

  • noun Asian pepper plant whose dried leaves are chewed with betel nut (seed of the betel palm) by southeast Asians

Etymologies

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

[Portuguese, from Malayalam vettila, veṟṟila, from Tamil veṟṟilai.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Tamil வெற்றிலை (veṟṟilai) Tamil ("vettr"=variety ref + இலை (ilai, "leaf")), (Source: OED)

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Examples

Comments

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  • "...his teeth were indeed quite black from the chewing of betel..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 111

    March 4, 2008

  • another usage note on bhang

    March 17, 2008