The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fustic \Fus"tic\, n. [F. fustoc, Sp. fustoc. Cf. Fustet.] The wood of the Maclura tinctoria, a tree growing in the West Indies, used in dyeing yellow; -- called also old fustic. [Written also fustoc.]
Note: Other kinds of yellow wood are often called fustic; as that of species of Xanthoxylum, and especially the Rhus Cotinus, which is sometimes called young fustic to distinguish it from the Maclura. See Fustet.
Usage examples of "old fustic".
They conversed in Spanish too, for his companion, Jaime Guzman, was a Spaniard, originally from Avila in Old Castile, a partner in the Cadiz firm that had bought the greater part of the old fustic in the captured William and Mary: he could speak a certain amount of commercial English, but he had not been on speaking-terms with any of his fellow-captives for a great while.
He had the highest opinion of her captain as a seaman, yet even so he was astonished to learn that he had taken no less than five prizes this voyage - two Port Royal sugar ships whose slowness had separated them from their convoy in the night, and three other West Indiamen with even more valuable cargoes of indigo, coffee, logwood, ebony, old fustic and hides that, being fast sailers, had chanced it on their own - and still more astonished to learn that they had all five been moored in the harbour of Horta, on Fayal, while their captains, the wives of those that sailed in married comfort, and the merchants of their factors had been packed off to France in the schooner, there to make what arrangements they could to ransom themselves, their ships and their cargoes.