QUASSIA

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does quassia mean? 

• QUASSIA (noun)
  The noun QUASSIA has 2 senses:

1. 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

2. 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

  Familiarity information: QUASSIA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• QUASSIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

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

organic compound (any compound of carbon and another element or a radical)

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

Jamaica quassia (similar to the extract from Quassia amara)

Sense 2

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 ("quassia" 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 ("quassia" is a member of...):

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