Wiktionary
n. 1 The guaiacum trees, (taxlink Guaiacum officinale species noshow=1) and (taxlink Guaiacum sanctum species noshow=1). 2 The wood or resin from such a tree.
WordNet
n. hard greenish-brown wood of the lignum vitae tree and other trees of the genus Guaiacum [syn: guaiac, guaiacum]
small evergreen tree of Caribbean and southern Central America to northern South America; a source of lignum vitae wood, hardest of commercial timbers, and a medicinal resin [syn: Guaiacum officinale]
Wikipedia
Lignum vitae is a trade wood, also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as pockholz, from trees of the genus Guaiacum. The trees are indigenous to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America and have been an important export crop to Europe since the beginning of the 16th century. The wood was once very important for applications requiring a material with its extraordinary combination of strength, toughness, and density. It is also the national tree of the Bahamas and the Jamaican national flower.
The wood is obtained chiefly from Guaiacum officinale and Guaiacum sanctum, both small, slow growing trees. All species of the genus Guaiacum are now listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as potentially endangered species. Demand for the wood has been reduced by modern materials science, which has led to polymer, alloys and composite materials that can take lignum vitae's place.
Usage examples of "lignum vitae".
From other ships he looted cargoes of lapis, pearls, amber, diamonds, rubies, carnelian, ambergris, jade, ivory, and lignum vitae.
It was a gnarled tree, lignum vitae, the tree with wood so tough that pulley blocks are made from it that are better than metal.
At once, from the direction of the lignum vitae tree, two large black birds, slightly smaller than ravens, whirled in, circled the interior of the cafe amidst a metallic clangour of song unlike the song of any other bird in the world, and untidily landed on the counter within reach of Bond's hand.
Joseph Bagnet, otherwise Lignum Vitae, ex-artilleryman and present bassoon-player.
Albury had taken the boat through to the Gulf side under the Indian Key Bridge and anchored behind Lignum Vitae, one of the largest islands in Florida Bay.
The wood is sometimes sold by chemists in the form of fine shavings, and as such called Lignum Vitae, which are turned green by exposure to the air, and bluish green by the action of nitric fumes.
The box was fashioned of some light-colored wood, perhaps lignum vitae.
From the naked purity of the stable of Bethlehem, made of wood as the lignum vitae of the cross was wood, to the bacchanalia of gold and stone!
The revolver snuggled against his ribs was vastly comforting, freshly reloaded now, all six rounds tipped with lead-cored lignum vitae bullets.
But his cousin John later remarked, with awe at his perseverance, that he had been born and tempered a wedge of steel to split the knot of lignum vitae, which tied North America to Great Britain.
There were a few palm trees on the low ridge, tough undergrowth of lignum vitae and other intensely hard wood, and elsewhere, particularly on the easterly and lowest side of the island, there was mangrove thicket.