Definify.com

Webster 1828 Edition


Maguey

MAG'UEY

,
Adj.
A species of aloe in Mexico, which furnished the natives with timber for their buildings. Its leaves were used for covering the roofs of their houses,and for paper, clothing and cordage.
The maguey is a species of the Genus Agave, and is now cultivated in Mexico, for the purpose of preparing from its leaves a spirituous liquor called pulque.

Definition 2024


maguey

maguey

See also: magüey

English

Noun

maguey (plural magueys)

  1. Any of various large agaves of Mexico and the southern US, especially the American aloe, Agave americana.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 424:
      through black fields, where tlachiqueros brought sheepskins slung across their backs full of fresh maguey juice to be fermented, and campesinos in white lined the right-of-way
    • 1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, Vintage 1992, p. 147:
      and they rode through strange forests of maguey--the aloe or century plant--with immense flowering stalks that rose forty feet into the desert air.
  • For usage examples of this term, see Citations:maguey.

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowing from Taino maguey.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /maˈɡej/

Noun

maguey m (plural magueyes)

  1. maguey