Quassia Definition

kwŏshə
noun
Any of a genus (Quassia) of shrubs and trees of the quassia family.
Webster's New World
The wood of either of two tropical trees (Picrasma excela or Quassia amara) of the quassia family, used in making furniture.
Webster's New World
The wood of this plant.
American Heritage
A bitter drug extracted from this wood, used in insecticides and, formerly, in medicine.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
adjective
Designating a family (Simaroubaceae, order Sapindales) of tropical American dicotyledonous shrubs and trees having alternate pinnate leaves, including ailanthus.
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Quassia

Noun

Singular:
quassia
Plural:
quassias

Origin of Quassia

  • New Latin after Gramman Quassi (“Great Man” Kwasi), an 18th-century Guinean who, after being enslaved and transported to Suriname, became renowned as a healer, especially by prescribing quassia for fever, and whose success eventually allowed him to purchase his freedom

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Quassia Sentence Examples

  • The original quassia was officially recognized in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1788.

  • Since that date this wood has continued in use in Britain under the name of quassia to the exclusion of the Surinam quassia, which, however, is still employed in France and Germany.

  • Jamaica quassia is imported into England in logs several feet in length and often nearly one foot in thickness, consisting of pieces of the trunk and larger branches.

  • The wood contains no tannin, and for this reason quassia, like chiretta and calumba, may be preserved with iron.

  • Instead of discoursing on the corporate conscience of the state and the endowments of the Church, the importance of Christian education, and the theological unfitness of the Jews to sit in parliament, he is solving business-like problems about foreign tariffs and the exportation of machinery; waxing eloquent over the regulation of railways, and a graduated tax on corn; subtle on the monetary merits of half-farthings, and great in the mysterious lore of quassia and cocculus indicus.

More Sentences

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to quassia using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

QQUQUA

Words Ending With

AIASIA

Unscrambles

quassia

Words Starting With Q and Ending With A

Starts With Q & Ends With AStarts With QU & Ends With AStarts With Q & Ends With IA

Word Length

7 Letter Words7 Letter Words Starting With Q7 Letter Words Ending With A