Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See licorice.

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

  • noun See licorice.

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

  • noun countable A leguminous plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, from which a sweet black liquor is extracted and used as a confection and in medicine
  • noun uncountable a type of confection made from liquorice extract.

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

  • noun a black candy flavored with the dried root of the licorice plant
  • noun deep-rooted coarse-textured plant native to the Mediterranean region having blue flowers and pinnately compound leaves; widely cultivated in Europe for its long thick sweet roots

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French licoresse, from Late Latin liquiritia, from Ancient Greek γλυκύρριζα (glukurrhiza, "sweet root").

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Examples

  • Tom was a good-natured lad, and, as his master said, very fond of liquorice; but the doctor used to laugh at that (when Tom was not by), saying, "It's very true that Tom cribs my _liquorice_; but I will say this for him, he is very honest about _jalap_ and _rhubarb_, and I have never missed a grain."

    Poor Jack Frederick Marryat 1820

  • Tom was a good-natured lad, and, as his master said, very fond of liquorice; but the doctor used to laugh at that (when Tom was not by), saying, "it's very true that Tom cribs my _liquorice_; but I will say this for him, he is very honest about _jalap_ and _rhubarb_, and I have never missed a grain."

    Poor Jack Frederick Marryat 1820

  • 2 - Ricci brand liquorice is sold in Go Lo stores, Woolworths, and selected chemists.

    Cheeseburger Gothic » The Ladies Blue Room. Or something. 2010

  • Another solution may be recommended, that of the black liquorice, which is a transparent brown, and naturally hard.

    The Repairing & Restoration of Violins 'The Strad' Library, No. XII. Horace Petherick 1879

  • And Bézuquet, labelling liquorice and _sirupus gummi_, resembles an old sea-rover of the Barbary coast.

    Tartarin On The Alps Alphonse Daudet 1868

  • The roots afford liquorice, which is extracted in the same manner as that from the true Spanish liquorice plant, the _Glycyrrhiza glabra_.

    Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture William Saunders 1861

  • Note other loanwords entering into Latin from Greek that show the same curious loss of g- eg. liquiritia 'liquorice'

    Indo-European (*)*ǵalak- 'milk' 2010

  • It is often needful to use some soothing, nourishing substance, such as liquorice, boiled with a little camomile, taken, say after meals, while the acid is taken before them: this has an excellent effect.

    Papers on Health John Kirk

  • On the beach of the great river they found an abundance of a sweet fragrant root which Mackenzie calls "liquorice".

    Pioneers in Canada Harry Hamilton Johnston 1892

  • All things considered, I’d still rather that kind of liquorice than the weirdy weirdy sweet stuff you get in the rest of the world, anyday.

    “Mapplethorpe: Polaroids” | clusterflock 2009

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