Definitions

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

  • noun The castor-oil plant.
  • noun The poisonous seed of the castor-oil plant, from which castor oil is obtained.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See bean.

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

  • (Bot.) The bean or seed of the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi.)

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

  • noun The seed of the castor oil plant, Ricinus communis; used in the production of castor oil and of the poison ricin.

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

  • noun the toxic seed of the castor-oil plant; source of castor oil

Etymologies

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

[castor (oil) + bean.]

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Examples

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Comments

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  • The fruit of that plant, the castor bean, contains a supertoxic level of the poison ricin. As little as one bean, well chewed, could prove fatal.

    February 27, 2015