cabbage bark

noun

variants or cabbage-bark tree

: an angelim (Andira inermis) widely distributed in tropical America and western Africa having a shaggy unpleasant-smelling toxic bark that has been used together with the seeds as a purgative, vermifuge, and narcotic and yielding a hard strong durable wood variable in color and susceptible of a fine polish

called also cabbage tree

Word History

Etymology

cabbage (palm) + bark

First Known Use

1777, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of cabbage bark was in 1777

See more words from the same year

Cite this Entry

Style

“Cabbage bark.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabbage%20bark. Accessed 3 Nov. 2024.

Copy Citation