rhubarb
Pronunciation Noun
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Pronunciation Noun
rhubarb
- Any plant#Noun|plant of the genus Rheum, especially Rheum rhabarbarum, having large leaves and long green#Adjective|green or reddish acidic leafstalks that are edible, in particular when cooked (although the leaves are mildly poisonous).
- (often, attributive) The leafstalks of common rhubarb or garden rhubarb (usually known as Rheum × hybridum), which are long, fleshy, often pale#Adjective|pale red, and with a tart#Adjective|tart taste#Noun|taste, used as a food ingredient; they are frequently stew#Verb|stewed with sugar#Noun|sugar and made into jam#Noun|jam or used in crumble#Noun|crumbles, pies, etc.
- The dried rhizome and roots of Rheum palmatum (Chinese rhubarb) or Rheum officinale (Tibetan rhubarb), from China, used as a laxative and purgative.
- 1661, Robert Lovell, “Anthropologia, &c. Of Man. &c.”, in ΠΑΝΖΩΟΡΥΚΤΟΛΟΓΙΑ [PANZŌORYKTOLOGIA]. Sive Panzoologicomineralogia. Or a Compleat History of Animals and Minerals, Containing the Summe of All Authors, both Ancient and Modern, Galenicall and Chymicall, [...], Oxford: Printed by Hen[ry] Hall, for Jos[eph] Godwin, OCLC 79920846 ↗, page 388 ↗:
- The running of the reines or gonorrhœa, which is an exceſſive and involuntary profuſion of ſperm, cauſed, by its proper vice, and that of the ſpermatick parts; it's cured, […] if the ſperm be hot & ſharp, by phlebotomy, rhubarb, myrobalans, ſuccory, the foure greater cold ſeeds, anointing the ſpine and loines, with refrigerating unguents, the cerot of ſaunders, and comitiſſæ; {{...}
- (Britain, military, aviation, historical) A Royal Air Force World War II code name for operations by aircraft (fighters and fighter-bombers) involving low-level flight#Noun|flight to seek opportunistic target#Noun|targets.
- (common rhubarb) tusky (dialectal)
- French: rhubarbe
- German: Rhabarber
- Italian: rabarbaro
- Portuguese: ruibarbo
- Russian: реве́нь
- Spanish: ruibarbo
rhubarb (not comparable)
- Of the colour#Noun|colour of rhubarb: either brownish-yellow (the colour of rhubarb rhizomes and roots used for medicinal purposes), or pale#Adjective|pale red (often the colour of the leafstalks of common rhubarb).
rhubarb (rhubarbs, present participle rhubarbing; past and past participle rhubarbed)
- (Britain, military, aviation) Of fighter aircraft: to fire#Verb|fire at a target#Noun|target opportunistically.
rhubarb
(originally, theater, uncountable) General background noise#Noun|noise caused by several simultaneous indecipherable conversations, which is created in film#Noun|films, stage#Noun|stage play#Noun|plays, etc., by actors repeat#Verb|repeating the word rhubarb; hence, such noise in other settings; rhubarb rhubarb, rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb. - (US, originally, baseball, countable) An excited, angry exchange of words, especially at a sporting event.
- (US, originally, baseball, by extension, countable) A brawl#Noun|brawl.
rhubarb (rhubarbs, present participle rhubarbing; past and past participle rhubarbed)
- (intransitive, originally, theater) Of an actor in a film, stage play, etc.: to repeat the word rhubarb to create the sound of indistinct conversation; hence, to converse#Verb|converse indistinctly, to mumble#Verb|mumble.
- (transitive) To articulate#Verb|articulate indistinctly or mumble (word#Noun|words or phrase#Noun|phrases); to say inconsequential or vague things because one does not know what to say, or to stall#Verb|stall for time#Noun|time.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002