Definitions

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

  • noun A dark resinous extract obtained from several tropical American woody plants, especially Chondrodendron tomentosum or certain species of Strychnos, used as an arrow poison by some Indian peoples of South America.
  • noun Any of several purified preparations of such an extract, used formerly as a drug to relax skeletal muscles during anesthesia.
  • noun The drug tubocurarine.
  • noun Any of the plants that yield curare.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as curari.

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

  • noun A black resinoid extract prepared by the South American Indians from the bark of several species of Strychnos (Strychnos toxifera, etc.). It sometimes has little effect when taken internally, but is quickly fatal when introduced into the blood, and used by the Indians as an arrow poison.

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

  • noun A plant, Strychnos toxifera, known for the toxin it produces.
  • noun A substance containing the alkaloid D-tubocurarine, used historically as a muscle relaxant during surgery.

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

  • noun a toxic alkaloid found in certain tropical South American trees that is a powerful relaxant for striated muscles

Etymologies

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

[Portuguese or Spanish curaré, both of Cariban and Tupian origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Karib “Mawa Cure”, referring the Mawa vine, or Strychnos toxifera

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