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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mahogany tree

Mahogany \Ma*hog"a*ny\, Mahogany tree \Ma*hog"a*ny tree`\, n.

  1. (Bot.) A large tree of the genus Swietenia ( Swietenia Mahogoni), found in tropical America.

    Note: Several other trees, with wood more or less like mahogany, are called by this name; as, African mahogany ( Khaya Senegalensis), Australian mahogany ( Eucalyptus marginatus), Bastard mahogany ( Batonia apetala of the West Indies), Indian mahogany ( Cedrela Toona of Bengal, and trees of the genera Soymida and Chukrassia), Madeira mahogany ( Persea Indica), Mountain mahogany, the black or cherry birch ( Betula lenta), also the several species of Cercocarpus of California and the Rocky Mountains.

  2. The wood of the Swietenia Mahogoni. It is of a reddish brown color, beautifully veined, very hard, and susceptible of a fine polish. It is used in the manufacture of furniture.

  3. A table made of mahogany wood. [Colloq.]

    To be under the mahogany, to be so drunk as to have fallen under the table. [Eng.]

    To put one's legs under some one's mahogany, to dine with him. [Slang]

WordNet
mahogany tree

n. any of various tropical timber trees of the family Meliaceae especially the genus Swietinia valued for their hard yellowish- to reddish-brown wood that is readily worked and takes a high polish [syn: mahogany]

Usage examples of "mahogany tree".

It was light enough to make out a fresh blaze on the trunk of a pod mahogany tree guarding a low place on the riverbank.

Giant poinciana trees were in bloom, many of them reaching heavy branches low over the water, breezes dropping the flaming petals into the smooth flow of tide and current, and a gigantic mahogany tree shaded the main entrance to the old part, the steps and the porch.

Pitt held an arm over his eyes as he slowly descended through the first tier of the green canopy, narrowly brushing past the limbs of a high mahogany tree that was sprouting clusters of small white flowers.

It was a sturdy piece, having been fashioned from the wood of a mahogany tree felled on the shores of the Orinoco.

Twenty yards away, a dead mahogany tree split up the middle and dropped a huge leafless branch.

Modest in stature the Huli peoples might be, but every man was muscled as hard as the stump of a mahogany tree.