[boks-woo
d] 
| 1. | the hard, fine-grained, compact wood of the box shrub or tree, used for wood-engravers' blocks, musical instruments, etc. |
| 2. | the tree or shrub itself. |
| a North American dogwood tree, Cornus florida, having small greenish flowers in the spring, surrounded by white or pink bracts that resemble petals: the state flower and the state tree of Virginia. |
| box·wood (bŏks'wŏŏd') n.
|
boxwood
hard, heavy, fine-grained wood, usually white or light yellow, that is obtained from the box (Buxus sempervirens) and other small trees of the genus Buxus; about 30 species of shrubby evergreen plants are in the family Buxaceae. Boxwood also refers to many other woods with a similar density and grain, such as Venezuelan boxwood, or zapatero (Gossypiospermum praecox), a South American tree of the family Flacourtiaceae; West Indian boxwood, a North American lumber trade name for wood from two tropical American trees, Phyllostylon brasiliensis of the family Ulmaceae and Tabebuia pentaphylla of the family Bignoniaceae; and a number of woods from Australian trees in the genera Eucalyptus and Tristania (family Myrtaceae), Alyxia (family Apocynaceae), and Murraya (family Rutaceae).
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