Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several North American poplar trees, especially Populus deltoides, which has triangular leaves and a tuft of cottony hairs on the seeds.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Australia, a tree of the aster family, Bedfordia salicina: so called from the cottony under-surface of the leaves, or its hard, brownish, mottled wood. Called dogwood and honeywood in Tasmania.
  • noun The name of several species of the genus Populus the United States, from the light cottony tuft at the base of the numerous small seeds.

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

  • noun (Bot.) An American tree of the genus Populus or poplar, having the seeds covered with abundant cottonlike hairs; esp., the Populus monilifera and Populus angustifolia of the Western United States.

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

  • noun A number of species of tree in the genus Populus (poplars), typically growing along watercourses.

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

  • noun any of several North American trees of the genus Populus having a tuft of cottony hairs on the seed
  • noun American basswood of the Allegheny region

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cotton +‎ wood

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