Pine, n.
 1. Bot. Any tree of the coniferous genus Pinus. See Pinus.
 Note: ☞  There are about twenty-eight species in the United States, of which the white pine (Pinus Strobus), the Georgia pine (Pinus australis), the red pine (Pinus resinosa), and the great West Coast sugar pine (Pinus Lambertiana) are among the most valuable.  The Scotch pine or fir, also called Norway or Riga pine (Pinus sylvestris), is the only British species.  The nut pine is any pine tree, or species of pine, which bears large edible seeds. See Pinon.
     The spruces, firs, larches, and true cedars, though formerly considered pines, are now commonly assigned to other genera.
 2. The wood of the pine tree.
 3. A pineapple.
 Ground pine. Bot. See under Ground.
 Norfolk Island pine Bot., a beautiful coniferous tree, the Araucaria excelsa.
 Pine barren, a tract of infertile land which is covered with pines. [Southern U.S.]
 Pine borer Zool., any beetle whose larvæ bore into pine trees.
 Pine finch. Zool. See Pinefinch, in the Vocabulary.
 Pine grosbeak Zool., a large grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator), which inhabits the northern parts of both hemispheres. The adult male is more or less tinged with red.
 Pine lizard Zool., a small, very active, mottled gray lizard (Sceloporus undulatus), native of the Middle States; -- called also swift, brown scorpion, and alligator.
 Pine marten. Zool. (a) A European weasel (Mustela martes), called also sweet marten, and yellow-breasted marten. (b) The American sable. See Sable.
 Pine moth Zool., any one of several species of small tortricid moths of the genus Retinia, whose larvæ burrow in the ends of the branchlets of pine trees, often doing great damage.
 Pine mouse Zool., an American wild mouse (Arvicola pinetorum), native of the Middle States. It lives in pine forests.
 Pine needle Bot., one of the slender needle-shaped leaves of a pine tree. See Pinus.
 Pine-needle wool. See Pine wool (below).
 Pine oil, an oil resembling turpentine, obtained from fir and pine trees, and used in making varnishes and colors.
 Pine snake Zool., a large harmless North American snake (Pituophis melanoleucus).  It is whitish, covered with brown blotches having black margins.  Called also bull snake. The Western pine snake (Pituophis Sayi) is chestnut-brown, mottled with black and orange.
 Pine tree Bot., a tree of the genus Pinus; pine.
 Pine-tree money, money coined in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, and so called from its bearing a figure of a pine tree.  The most noted variety is the pine tree shilling.
 Pine weevil Zool., any one of numerous species of weevils whose larvæ bore in the wood of pine trees. Several species are known in both Europe and America, belonging to the genera Pissodes, Hylobius, etc.
 Pine wool, a fiber obtained from pine needles by steaming them.  It is prepared on a large scale in some of the Southern United States, and has many uses in the economic arts; -- called also pine-needle wool, and pine-wood wool.

 ◄ ►


 Sweet a. [Compar. Sweeter superl. Sweetest.]
 1. Having an agreeable taste or flavor such as that of sugar; saccharine; -- opposed to sour and bitter; as, a sweet beverage; sweet fruits; sweet oranges.
 2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense.
    The breath of these flowers is sweet to me.   --Longfellow.
 3. Pleasing to the ear; soft; melodious; harmonious; as, the sweet notes of a flute or an organ; sweet music; a sweet voice; a sweet singer.
    To make his English sweet upon his tongue.   --Chaucer.
    A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful.   --Hawthorne.
 4. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair; as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion.
 Sweet interchange
 Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.   --Milton.
 5. Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water.
 6. Not changed from a sound or wholesome state. Specifically: (a) Not sour; as, sweet milk or bread. (b) Not state; not putrescent or putrid; not rancid; as, sweet butter; sweet meat or fish.
 7. Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners.
    Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades?   --Job xxxviii. 31.
    Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working.   --M. Arnold.
 Note: ☞ Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured, sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc.
 Sweet alyssum. Bot. See Alyssum.
 Sweet apple. Bot. (a) Any apple of sweet flavor. (b) See Sweet-sop.
 Sweet bay. Bot. (a) The laurel (Laurus nobilis). (b) Swamp sassafras.
 Sweet calabash Bot., a plant of the genus Passiflora (Passiflora maliformis) growing in the West Indies, and producing a roundish, edible fruit, the size of an apple.
 Sweet cicely. Bot. (a) Either of the North American plants of the umbelliferous genus Osmorrhiza having aromatic roots and seeds, and white flowers. --Gray. (b) A plant of the genus Myrrhis (Myrrhis odorata) growing in England.
 Sweet calamus, or Sweet cane. Bot. Same as Sweet flag, below.
 Sweet Cistus Bot., an evergreen shrub (Cistus Ladanum) from which the gum ladanum is obtained.
 Sweet clover. Bot. See Melilot.
 Sweet coltsfoot Bot., a kind of butterbur (Petasites sagittata) found in Western North America.
 Sweet corn Bot., a variety of the maize of a sweet taste. See the Note under Corn.
 Sweet fern Bot., a small North American shrub (Comptonia asplenifolia syn. Myrica asplenifolia) having sweet-scented or aromatic leaves resembling fern leaves.
 Sweet flag Bot., an endogenous plant (Acorus Calamus) having long flaglike leaves and a rootstock of a pungent aromatic taste. It is found in wet places in Europe and America. See Calamus, 2.
 Sweet gale Bot., a shrub (Myrica Gale) having bitter fragrant leaves; -- also called sweet willow, and Dutch myrtle. See 5th Gale.
 Sweet grass Bot., holy, or Seneca, grass.
 Sweet gum Bot., an American tree (Liquidambar styraciflua). See Liquidambar.
 Sweet herbs, fragrant herbs cultivated for culinary purposes.
 Sweet John Bot., a variety of the sweet William.
 Sweet leaf Bot., horse sugar.  See under Horse.
 Sweet marjoram. Bot. See Marjoram.
 Sweet marten Zool., the pine marten.
 Sweet maudlin Bot., a composite plant (Achillea Ageratum) allied to milfoil.
 Sweet oil, olive oil.
 Sweet pea. Bot. See under Pea.
 Sweet potato. Bot. See under Potato.
 Sweet rush Bot., sweet flag.
 Sweet spirits of niter Med. Chem. See Spirit of nitrous ether, under Spirit.
 Sweet sultan Bot., an annual composite plant (Centaurea moschata), also, the yellow-flowered (Centaurea odorata); -- called also sultan flower.
 Sweet tooth, an especial fondness for sweet things or for sweetmeats. [Colloq.]
 Sweet William. (a) Bot. A species of pink (Dianthus barbatus) of many varieties. (b) Zool. The willow warbler. (c) Zool. The European goldfinch; -- called also sweet Billy. [Prov. Eng.]
 Sweet willow Bot., sweet gale.
 Sweet wine. See Dry wine, under Dry.
 To be sweet on, to have a particular fondness for, or special interest in, as a young man for a young woman. [Colloq.] --Thackeray.
 Syn: -- Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.