Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several hemiparasitic herbs or shrubs of the genus Krameria of the Americas, having bilaterally symmetrical pink or purplish flowers and spiny fruit.
  • noun The dried root of any of these plants, formerly used as an astringent, in various dental preparations, and as the source of a dye.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See ratany.

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

  • noun The powerfully astringent root of a half-shrubby Peruvian plant (Krameria triandra). It is used in medicine and to color port wine.
  • noun the root of Krameria Ixina, a native of New Granada.

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

  • noun The powerfully astringent root of a half-shrubby Peruvian plant (Krameria triandra), used in medicine and to colour port wine.

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin rhatania, from American Spanish ratania, of Quechua origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Spanish ratania

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Examples

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  • ratany

    July 30, 2012