cucumber tree


noun
  1. any of several American magnolias, especially Magnolia acuminata, having ovate leaves, yellowish-green bell-shaped flowers, and dark red, conelike fruit.

  2. any of certain other trees, as an East Indian tree of the genus Averrhoa.

Origin of cucumber tree

1
An Americanism dating back to 1775–85; so called from the resemblance of its fruit to cucumbers

Words Nearby cucumber tree

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cucumber tree in a sentence

  • Everywhere the rhododendron was bloom-loaded, and the large-petaled flower of the "cucumber tree" spread its waxen whiteness.

    A Pagan of the Hills | Charles Neville Buck
  • It was a dugout or canoe, made by hollowing with axe and adz a section of a cucumber tree.

    A Dream of Empire | William Henry Venable
  • The seed-pods of the cucumber tree soaked in raw whiskey makes a first-rate bitters for all such like fevers.

    A Dream of Empire | William Henry Venable
  • It is known as large-leaved cucumber tree, great-leaved magnolia, large-leaved umbrella tree, and long-leaved magnolia.

    American Forest Trees | Henry H. Gibson
  • Next to the yellow poplar, the cucumber tree is the most important species of the magnolia family, at least as a source of lumber.

    American Forest Trees | Henry H. Gibson

British Dictionary definitions for cucumber tree

cucumber tree

noun
  1. any of several American trees or shrubs of the genus Magnolia, esp M. acuminata, of E and central North America, having cup-shaped greenish flowers and cucumber-shaped fruits

  2. an E Asian tree, Averrhoa bilimbi, with edible fruits resembling small cucumbers: family Averrhoaceae: See also carambola

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012