The DICT Development Group

Search for:
Search type:
Database:

Database copyright information
Server information

12 definitions found for sycamore

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :


  Plane \Plane\, n. [F., fr. L. platanus, Gr. ?, fr. ? broad; --
     so called on account of its broad leaves and spreading form.
     See Place, and cf. Platane, Plantain the tree.] (Bot.)
     Any tree of the genus Platanus.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The Oriental plane ({Platanus orientalis) is a native
           of Asia. It rises with a straight, smooth, branching
           stem to a great height, with palmated leaves, and long
           pendulous peduncles, sustaining several heads of small
           close-sitting flowers. The seeds are downy, and
           collected into round, rough, hard balls. The Occidental
           plane ({Platanus occidentalis), which grows to a great
           height, is a native of North America, where it is
           popularly called sycamore, buttonwood, and
           buttonball, names also applied to the California
           species ({Platanus racemosa).
           [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :


  Sycamore \Syc"a*more\, n. [L. sycomorus, Gr. ? the fig mulberry;
     ? a fig + ? the black mulberry; or perhaps of Semitic origin:
     cf. F. sycomore. Cf. Mulberry.] (Bot.)
     (a) A large tree ({Ficus Sycomorus) allied to the common
         fig. It is found in Egypt and Syria, and is the sycamore,
         or sycamine, of Scripture.
     (b) The American plane tree, or buttonwood.
     (c) A large European species of maple ({Acer
         Pseudo-Platanus). [Written sometimes sycomore.]
         [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :


  Buttonwood \But"ton*wood`\, n. (Bot.)
     The Platanus occidentalis, or American plane tree, a large
     tree, producing rough balls, from which it is named; --
     called also buttonball tree, and, in some parts of the
     United States, sycamore. The California buttonwood is
     Platanus racemosa.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) :


  sycamore
      n 1: variably colored and sometimes variegated hard tough
           elastic wood of a sycamore tree [syn: sycamore,
           lacewood]
      2: any of several trees of the genus Platanus having thin pale
         bark that scales off in small plates and lobed leaves and
         ball-shaped heads of fruits [syn: plane tree, sycamore,
         platan]
      3: Eurasian maple tree with pale grey bark that peels in flakes
         like that of a sycamore tree; leaves with five ovate lobes
         yellow in autumn [syn: sycamore, great maple, scottish
         maple, Acer pseudoplatanus]
      4: thick-branched wide-spreading tree of Africa and adjacent
         southwestern Asia often buttressed with branches rising from
         near the ground; produces cluster of edible but inferior figs
         on short leafless twigs; the biblical sycamore [syn:
         sycamore, sycamore fig, mulberry fig, Ficus
         sycomorus]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :


  Sycamore
     more properly sycomore (Heb. shikmoth and shikmim, Gr.
     sycomoros), a tree which in its general character resembles the
     fig-tree, while its leaves resemble those of the mulberry; hence
     it is called the fig-mulberry (Ficus sycomorus). At Jericho,
     Zacchaeus climbed a sycomore-tree to see Jesus as he passed by
     (Luke 19:4). This tree was easily destroyed by frost (Ps.
     78:47), and therefore it is found mostly in the "vale" (1 Kings
     10:27; 2 Chr. 1:15: in both passages the R.V. has properly
     "lowland"), i.e., the "low country," the shephelah, where the
     climate is mild. Amos (7:14) refers to its fruit, which is of an
     inferior character; so also probably Jeremiah (24:2). It is to
     be distinguished from our sycamore (the Acer pseudo-platanus),
     which is a species of maple often called a plane-tree.