BITTERWOOD

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bitterwood mean? 

• BITTERWOOD (noun)
  The noun BITTERWOOD has 3 senses:

1. handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark

2. West Indian tree yielding the drug Jamaica quassia

3. medium to large tree of tropical North and South America having odd-pinnate leaves and long panicles of small pale yellow flowers followed by scarlet fruits

  Familiarity information: BITTERWOOD used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BITTERWOOD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

bitterwood; quassia; Quassia amara

Hypernyms ("bitterwood" is a kind of...):

bitterwood tree (any of various trees or shrubs of the family Simaroubaceae having wood and bark with a bitter taste)

Holonyms ("bitterwood" is a member of...):

genus Quassia (tropical trees and shrubs with pinnate leaves and large scarlet flowers; bark is medicinal)

Sense 2

Meaning:

West Indian tree yielding the drug Jamaica quassia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

bitterwood; Jamaica quassia; Picrasma excelsa; Picrasma excelsum

Hypernyms ("bitterwood" is a kind of...):

bitterwood tree (any of various trees or shrubs of the family Simaroubaceae having wood and bark with a bitter taste)

Meronyms (substance of "bitterwood"):

Jamaica quassia (similar to the extract from Quassia amara)

Holonyms ("bitterwood" is a member of...):

genus Picrasma; Picrasma (small genus of deciduous trees of tropical America and Asia)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Medium to large tree of tropical North and South America having odd-pinnate leaves and long panicles of small pale yellow flowers followed by scarlet fruits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

bitterwood; paradise tree; Simarouba glauca

Hypernyms ("bitterwood" is a kind of...):

bitterwood tree (any of various trees or shrubs of the family Simaroubaceae having wood and bark with a bitter taste)

Holonyms ("bitterwood" is a member of...):

genus Simarouba; Simarouba (type genus of Simaroubaceae; tropical American trees and shrubs having a pale soft wood and bitter bark)