Definitions

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

  • noun A Mediterranean evergreen tree (Ceratonia siliqua) of the pea family, having pinnately compound leaves and large, dark, leathery pods.
  • noun The pod of this plant, containing a sweet edible pulp and seeds that yield a gum used as a stabilizer in food products.
  • noun An edible powder or flour made from the ground seeds and pods of this plant, used as a substitute for chocolate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The common English name of the plant Ceratonia Siliqua.

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

  • noun (Bot.) An evergreen leguminous tree (Ceratania Siliqua) found in the countries bordering the Mediterranean; the St. John's bread; -- called also carob tree.
  • noun One of the long, sweet, succulent, pods of the carob tree, which are used as food for animals and sometimes eaten by man; -- called also St. John's bread, carob bean, and algaroba bean.

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

  • noun An evergreen shrub or tree, Ceratonia siliqua, native to the Mediterranean region.
  • noun The fruit of that tree.
  • noun A sweet chocolate-like confection made with the pulp of the fruit.

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

  • noun long pod containing small beans and sweetish edible pulp; used as animal feed and source of a chocolate substitute
  • noun powder from the ground seeds and pods of the carob tree; used as a chocolate substitute
  • noun evergreen Mediterranean tree with edible pods; the biblical carob

Etymologies

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

[Middle English carabe, from Old French carobe, from Medieval Latin carrūbium, from Arabic ḫarrūba, carob pod; see algaroba.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French carobe, ultimately from Arabic الخروب (kharrub, "locust bean pod"), from Assyrian kharubu.

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