Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Tobacco
To-bac′co
,Noun.
[Sp.
tabaco
, fr. the Indian tabaco
the tube or pipe in which the Indians or Caribbees smoked this plant. Some derive the word from Tabaco
, a province of Yucatan, where it was said to be first found by the Spaniards; others from the island of Tobago
, one of the Caribbees. But these derivations are very doubtful.] 1.
(Bot.)
An American plant (
Nicotiana Tabacum
) of the Nightshade family, much used for smoking and chewing, and as snuff. As a medicine, it is narcotic, emetic, and cathartic. Tobacco has a strong, peculiar smell, and an acrid taste. ☞ The name is extended to other species of the genus, and to some unrelated plants, as Indian tobacco (
Nicotiana rustica
, and also Lobelia inflata
), mountain tobacco (Arnica montana
), and Shiraz tobacco (Nicotiana Persica
). 2.
The leaves of the plant prepared for smoking, chewing, etc., by being dried, cured, and manufactured in various ways.
Tobacco box
(Zool.)
, the common American skate.
– Tobacco camphor
. (Chem.)
See
– Nicotianine
. Tobacco man
, a tobacconist.
[R.]
– Tobacco pipe
. (a)
A pipe used for smoking, made of baked clay, wood, or other material.
(b)
(Bot.)
Same as
– Indian pipe
, under Indian
. Tobacco-pipe clay
(Min.)
, a species of clay used in making tobacco pipes; – called also
– cimolite
. Tobacco-pipe fish
. (Zool.)
See
– Pipemouth
. Tobacco stopper
, a small plug for pressing down the tobacco in a pipe as it is smoked.
– Tobacco worm
(Zool.)
, the larva of a large hawk moth (
Sphinx Carolina
syn. Phlegethontius Carolina
). It is dark green, with seven oblique white stripes bordered above with dark brown on each side of the body. It feeds upon the leaves of tobacco and tomato plants, and is often very injurious to the tobacco crop. See Illust. of Hawk moth
.Webster 1828 Edition
Tobacco
TOBAC'CO
,Noun.
A plant, a native of America, of the genus Nicotiana, much used for smoking and chewing and in snuff. As a medicine, it is narcotic. Tobacco has a strong disagreeable smell, and an acrid taste. When first used it sometimes occasions vomiting; but the practice of using it in any form, soon conquers distaste, and forms a relish for it that is strong and almost unconquerable.
Definition 2024
tobacco
tobacco
English
tobacco plant
Noun
tobacco (countable and uncountable, plural tobaccos or tobaccoes)
- (uncountable) Any plant of the genus Nicotiana.
- (uncountable) Leaves of Nicotiana tabacum and some other species cultivated and harvested to make cigarettes, cigars, snuff, for smoking in pipes or for chewing.
- 2013 September 7, “Unlucky strike”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852:
- Tobacco-settlement bonds are a tribute both to the inventiveness of bankers and the childlike impatience of politicians.
-
- (countable) A variety of tobacco.
- Tobaccos from the Connecticut Valley were used for wrapping cigars.
Translations
any plant of the genus Nicotiana
|
|
leaves of certain varieties of tobacco plant
|
|
variety
|