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Webster 1913 Edition

Bamboo

Bam-boo′

(băm-boō′)
,
Noun.
[Malay
bambu
,
mambu
.]
(Bot.)
A plant of the family of grasses, and genus
Bambusa
, growing in tropical countries.
☞ The most useful species is
Bambusa arundinacea
, which has a woody, hollow, round, straight, jointed stem, and grows to the height of forty feet and upward. The flowers grow in large panicles, from the joints of the stalk, placed three in a parcel, close to their receptacles. Old stalks grow to five or six inches in diameter, and are so hard and durable as to be used for building, and for all sorts of furniture, for water pipes, and for poles to support palanquins. The smaller stalks are used for walking sticks, flutes, etc.

Bam-boo′

,
Verb.
T.
To flog with the bamboo.

Webster 1828 Edition

Bamboo

BAM'BOO

,
Noun.
A plant of the reed kind, or genus Arundo, growing in the East Indies, and in some other warm climates, and sometimes attaining to the height of 60 feet. From the main root, which is long, thick and jointed,spring several round, jointed stalks, which at 10 or 12 feet from the ground, send out from their joints several stalks which are united at their base. These are armed, at their joints, with one or two sharp rigid spines, and furnished with oblong, oval leaves, eight or nine inches long, on short footstalks. The flowers grow in large panicles, from the joints of the stalk, placed three in a parcel, close to their receptacles. Old stalks grow to five or six inches in diameter, and are so hard and durable, as to be used for building and for all sorts of furniture, for water pipes, and for poles to support palanquins. The smaller stalks are used for walking sticks, flutes, &c.

Definition 2024

bamboo

bamboo

English

Bamboo.

Noun

bamboo ‎(plural bamboos)

  1. A grass of the Poaceae family, characterised by its woody, hollow, round, straight, jointed stem, all of which are in the Bambuseae tribe.
  2. The wood of the bamboo plant as a material or cane.
  3. A didgeridoo.
  4. (slang) A member of the British military or British East India Company who spent so much time in Indonesia, India, or Malaysia that they never went back home.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

bamboo ‎(not comparable)

  1. Made of the wood of the bamboo.

Translations

Verb

bamboo ‎(third-person singular simple present bamboos, present participle bambooing, simple past and past participle bambooed)

  1. (transitive) To flog with a bamboo cane.
    • 1880, Herbert Giles (translator), Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, London: Thomas de la Rue & Co., Vol. II, p. 18, footnote,
      […] the beadle is punished by fine, and sometimes bambooed, if robberies are too frequent within his jurisdiction, or if he fails to secure the person of any malefactor particularly wanted by his superior officers.
  2. (transitive) To paint (furniture, etc.) to give it the appearance of bamboo.
    • 1994, Penny Swift, The Complete Book of Paint Techniques, New Holland, p. 67,
      The craze for bambooing furniture and accessories was one of many popular paint techniques in the 18th century and early Victorian era.
  3. (India, slang) To penetrate sexually.
    • 2006, Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games, Penguin, 2008,
      If you're just a girl from Lucknow, with no fluid cash, you'll be just one more among thousands going from producer to producer by auto-rickshaw, and every photographer who agrees to take a picture for your portfolio will want to introduce you to his bed upstairs in the loft. And what you'll get out of all this in the end is a lot of bambooing and maybe a dance or two in his videos.
    • 2013, Nandini Bhattacharya, Hindi Cinema: Repeating the Subject, London: Routledge, Chapter 5,
      One scene of attachment and intimacy shows Vijay careening into their shared apartment dead drunk and insulting a praying Ajay for his devotion to the household god, Hanuman […] , saying that instead of being rescued Ajay will be "bamboo-ed," a popular slang for anal penetration.

Gooniyandi

Noun

bamboo

  1. didgeridoo

Mandinka

Noun

bamboo

  1. crocodile

Etymology

Borrowing from Dutch bamboe, from Portuguese bambu, from Malay bambu, from Kannada ಬಂಬು ‎(baṃbu).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bæmˈbu/

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