SYCAMORE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sycamore mean? 

• SYCAMORE (noun)
  The noun SYCAMORE has 4 senses:

1. variably colored and sometimes variegated hard tough elastic wood of a sycamore tree

2. any of several trees of the genus Platanus having thin pale bark that scales off in small plates and lobed leaves and ball-shaped heads of fruits

3. Eurasian maple tree with pale grey bark that peels in flakes like that of a sycamore tree; leaves with five ovate lobes yellow in autumn

4. thick-branched wide-spreading tree of Africa and adjacent southwestern Asia often buttressed with branches rising from near the ground; produces cluster of edible but inferior figs on short leafless twigs; the biblical sycamore

  Familiarity information: SYCAMORE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SYCAMORE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Variably colored and sometimes variegated hard tough elastic wood of a sycamore tree

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

lacewood; sycamore

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

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

Holonyms ("sycamore" is a substance of...):

plane tree; platan; sycamore (any of several trees of the genus Platanus having thin pale bark that scales off in small plates and lobed leaves and ball-shaped heads of fruits)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of several trees of the genus Platanus having thin pale bark that scales off in small plates and lobed leaves and ball-shaped heads of fruits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

plane tree; platan; sycamore

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

tree (a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms)

Meronyms (substance of "sycamore"):

lacewood; sycamore (variably colored and sometimes variegated hard tough elastic wood of a sycamore tree)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sycamore"):

London plane; Platanus acerifolia (very large fast-growing tree much planted as a street tree)

American plane; American sycamore; buttonwood; Platanus occidentalis (very large spreading plane tree of eastern and central North America to Mexico)

oriental plane; Platanus orientalis (large tree of southeastern Europe to Asia Minor)

California sycamore; Platanus racemosa (tall tree of Baja California having deciduous bark and large alternate palmately lobed leaves and ball-shaped clusters of flowers)

Arizona sycamore; Platanus wrightii (medium-sized tree of Arizona and adjacent regions having deeply lobed leaves and collective fruits in groups of 3 to 5)

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

genus Platanus; Platanus (genus of large monoecious mostly deciduous trees: London plane; sycamore)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Eurasian maple tree with pale grey bark that peels in flakes like that of a sycamore tree; leaves with five ovate lobes yellow in autumn

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Acer pseudoplatanus; great maple; scottish maple; sycamore

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

maple (any of numerous trees or shrubs of the genus Acer bearing winged seeds in pairs; north temperate zone)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Thick-branched wide-spreading tree of Africa and adjacent southwestern Asia often buttressed with branches rising from near the ground; produces cluster of edible but inferior figs on short leafless twigs; the biblical sycamore

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Ficus sycomorus; mulberry fig; sycamore; sycamore fig

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

fig tree (any moraceous tree of the tropical genus Ficus; produces a closed pear-shaped receptacle that becomes fleshy and edible when mature)

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

Ficus; genus Ficus (large genus of tropical trees or shrubs or climbers including fig trees)

 Context examples 

Have Pommers ready at mid-day with my sycamore lance, and place my harness on the sumpter mule.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)