DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Mon·key-bread n. Bot. The fruit of the Adansonia digitata; also, the tree. See Adansonia.
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Ad·an·so·ni·a n. Bot. A genus of great trees related to the Bombax. There are two species, Adansonia digitata, the baobab or monkey-bread of Africa and India, and Adansonia Gregorii, the sour gourd or cream-of-tartar tree of Australia. Both have a trunk of moderate height, but of enormous diameter, and a wide-spreading head. The fruit is oblong, and filled with pleasantly acid pulp. The wood is very soft, and the bark is used by the natives for making ropes and cloth.
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Sour a. [Compar. Sourer superl. Sourest.]
1. Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart.
All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite. --Bacon.
2. Changed, as by keeping, so as to be acid, rancid, or musty, turned.
3. Disagreeable; unpleasant; hence; cross; crabbed; peevish; morose; as, a man of a sour temper; a sour reply. “A sour countenance.”
He was a scholar . . .
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,
But to those men that sought him sweet as summer. --Shak.
4. Afflictive; painful. “Sour adversity.”
5. Cold and unproductive; as, sour land; a sour marsh.
Sour dock Bot., sorrel.
Sour gourd Bot., the gourdlike fruit Adansonia Gregorii, and Adansonia digitata; also, either of the trees bearing this fruit. See Adansonia.
Sour grapes. See under Grape.
Sour gum Bot. See Turelo.
Sour plum Bot., the edible acid fruit of an Australian tree (Owenia venosa); also, the tree itself, which furnished a hard reddish wood used by wheelwrights.
Syn: -- Acid; sharp; tart; acetous; acetose; harsh; acrimonious; crabbed; currish; peevish.
Ba·o·bab n. Bot. A gigantic African tree (Adansonia digitata), also naturalized in India. See Adansonia.
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Adansonia digitata
n : African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit
that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called
monkey bread [syn: baobab, monkey-bread tree]