Meaning of QUASSIA
| Pronunciation: | | 'kwâshu
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | |
- [n] 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
- [n] a bitter compound used as an insecticide and tonic and vermifuge; extracted from the wood and bark of trees of the genera Quassia and Picrasma
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| | Synonyms: | | bitterwood, Quassia amara |
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| | See Also: | | bitterwood tree, genus Quassia, Jamaica quassia, organic compound | |
| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | \Quas"si*a\, n. [NL. From the name of a negro, Quassy,
or Quash, who prescribed this article as a specific.]
The wood of several tropical American trees of the order
{Simarube[ae]}, as {Quassia amara}, {Picr[ae]na excelsa}, and
{Simaruba amara}. It is intensely bitter, and is used in
medicine and sometimes as a substitute for hops in making
beer.
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