noun

1. any of a genus (Rheum) of perennial, large-leaved plants of the buckwheat family; esp., the domestic pieplant (R. rhaponticum), having large, cordate leaf blades borne on long, thick stalks: the stalks are cooked into a sauce or baked in pies, but the blades are poisonous
2. the roots and rhizomes of various Asiatic rhubarbs, used as a cathartic
3. ☆

   Etymology: ? from the practice in early radio broadcasts of repeating “rhubarb” in simulating crowd noises

   Slang a heated discussion or argument

Etymology: ME rubarbe < OFr rheubarbe < ML rheubarbarum, altered < LL rha barbarum < Gr rhēon barbaron, foreign rhubarb < rhēon, rhubarb (< Pers rēwend) + barbaron, foreign, barbarous