agave americana
7 definitions found
agave americana - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Sisal grass \Si*sal" grass`\, Sisal hemp \Si*sal" hemp`\,
The prepared fiber of the Agave Americana, or American
aloe, used for cordage; -- so called from Sisal, a port in
Yucatan. See Sisal hemp, under Hemp.
[1913 Webster]
Pita \Pi"ta\, n. [Sp.] (Bot.)
(a) A fiber obtained from the Agave Americana and other
related species, -- used for making cordage and paper.
Called also pita fiber, and pita thread.
(b) The plant which yields the fiber.
[1913 Webster]
Maguey \Mag"uey\, n. [Sp. maguey, Mexican maguei and metl.]
(Bot.)
Any of several species of Agave, such as the century plant
(Agave Americana), a plant requiring many years to
come to maturity and blossoming only once before dying; and
the Agave atrovirens, a Mexican plant used especially for
making pulque, the source of the colorless Mexican liquor
mescal; and the cantala (Agave cantala), a Philippine
plant yielding a hard fibre used in making coarse twine. See
Agave.
[1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5]
2. A hard fibre used in making coarse twine, derived from the
Philippine Agave cantala (Agave cantala); also called
cantala.
[WordNet 1.5]
Agave \A*ga"ve\ ([.a]*g[=a]"v[-e]), prop. n. [L. Agave, prop.
name, fr. Gr. 'agayh`, fem. of 'agayo`s illustrious, noble.]
(Bot.)
A genus of plants (order Amaryllidaceae) of which the chief
species is the maguey or century plant (Agave Americana),
wrongly called Aloe. It takes from ten to seventy years,
according to climate, to attain maturity, when it produces a
gigantic flower stem, sometimes forty feet in height, and
perishes. The juice has purgative and diuretic properties.
The fermented juice is the pulque of the Mexicans;
distilled, it yields mescal. A strong thread and a tough
paper are made from the leaves, and the wood has many uses.
[1913 Webster]
Amole \A*mo"le\, n. [Mex.] (Bot.)
Any detergent plant, or the part of it used as a detergent,
as the roots of Agave Americana, Chlorogalum pomeridianum
, etc. [Sp. Amer. & Mex.]
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Century \Cen"tu*ry\, n.; pl. Centuries. [L. centuria (in
senses 1 & 3), fr. centum a hundred: cf. F. centurie. See
Cent.]
1. A hundred; as, a century of sonnets; an aggregate of a
hundred things. [Archaic.]
[1913 Webster]
And on it said a century of prayers. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. A period of a hundred years; as, this event took place
over two centuries ago.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Century, in the reckoning of time, although often used
in a general way of any series of hundred consecutive
years (as, a century of temperance work), usually
signifies a division of the Christian era, consisting
of a period of one hundred years ending with the
hundredth year from which it is named; as, the first
century (a. d. 1-100 inclusive); the seventh
century (a.d. 601-700); the eighteenth century
(a.d. 1701-1800). With words or phrases connecting
it with some other system of chronology it is used of
similar division of those eras; as, the first century
of Rome (A.U.C. 1-100).
[1913 Webster]
3. (Rom. Antiq.)
(a) A division of the Roman people formed according to
their property, for the purpose of voting for civil
officers.
(b) One of sixty companies into which a legion of the army
was divided. It was Commanded by a centurion.
[1913 Webster]
Century plant (Bot.), the Agave Americana, formerly
supposed to flower but once in a century; -- hence the
name. See Agave.
The Magdeburg Centuries, an ecclesiastical history of the
first thirteen centuries, arranged in thirteen volumes,
compiled in the 16th century by Protestant scholars at
Magdeburg.
[1913 Webster]
agave americana - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :
Agave americana
n 1: widely cultivated American monocarpic plant with greenish-
white flowers on a tall stalk; blooms only after ten to
twenty years and then dies [syn: American agave, Agave americana
]
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