Cubeb - Definitions from Dictionary.com

4 results for: Cubeb

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

cu·beb

Audio Help [kyoo-beb] Pronunciation Key

–noun

the spicy fruit or drupe of an East Indian climbing shrub, Piper cubeba, of the pepper family.

[Origin: 1250–1300; < ML cubéba < Ar kubābah (classical Ar kabābah); r. ME cucube, quibibe < AF, MF < ML, as above

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Cubeb

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

cu·beb Audio Help (kyōō'běb') Pronunciation Key
n.

A tropical southeast Asian shrubby vine (Piper cubeba) having spicy, berrylike fruits, heart-shaped leaves, and small flowers in cylindrical spikes.
The dried, unripe, berrylike fruit of this plant, used in perfumery, pharmaceuticals, and commercial flavorings.

[Middle English cubebe, from Old French, from Medieval Latin cubēba, from Arabic dialectal kubāba, variant of Arabic kabāba.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

cubeb
noun
1.	spicy fruit of the cubeb vine; when dried and crushed is used medicinally or in perfumery and sometimes smoked in cigarettes
2.	tropical southeast Asian shrubby vine bearing spicy berrylike fruits
3.	a cigarette containing cubeb

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Cubeb

Cu"beb\ (k?"b?b), n. [F. cub?be (cf. It. cubebe, Pr., Sp., Pg., & NL. cubeba), fr. Ar. kab?bat.] The small, spicy berry of a species of pepper (Piper Cubeba; in med., Cubeba officinalis), native in Java and Borneo, but now cultivated in various tropical countries. The dried unripe fruit is much used in medicine as a stimulant and purgative.

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