Definitions

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

  • noun (Bot.) See nicker tree.

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

  • noun nicker tree

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

  • noun handsome tree of central and eastern North America having large bipinnate leaves and green-white flowers followed by large woody brown pods whose seeds are used as a coffee substitute
  • noun tropical tree with large prickly pods of seeds that resemble beans and are used for jewelry and rosaries

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French bonduc, from Arabic hazelnut, filbert.

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Examples

Comments

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  • As in the plant Caesalpinia bonduc or formerly Guilandina bonduc, for instance. The "gray nicker", "nickernut" or "nickerbean" of the Amazon rainforest which possesses large prickly pods and spiny stems. The hard and shiny seeds within the pods turn gray upon drying. The water-dispersed seeds (tropical drift seeds) wash up on northern shores after traveling for months or years in the Gulf Stream. The seeds readily take a polish and are used for jewelry.

    February 23, 2010

  • Jewellery? They're quite big. Attractive, but unseemly large to be dangling from one's ears.

    February 23, 2010

  • Unless one has *ahem* large-ish *ahem* ears.

    February 23, 2010