bamboo

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various usually woody, temperate or tropical grasses of the genera Arundinaria, Bambusa, Dendrocalamus, Phyllostachys, or Sasa. Certain species of bamboo can reach heights of from 20 to 30 meters (66 to 98 feet).
2. n. The hard or woody, jointed, often hollow stems of these plants, used in construction, crafts, and fishing poles.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The common name of the arborescent grasses belonging to the genus Bambusa (which see) and its allies.
2. n. In the West Indies, a tall climbing grass of the genus Panicum, P. divaricatum.
3. n. In Queensland, a coarse grass, Stipa micrantha.
4. n. A stick or cane from the stem of the bamboo.
5. n. In pottery, a name given to a cane-colored biscuit made by Wedgwood.
6. n. An Eastern measure of length, equal in Pondicherry to 3⅔ meters.
7. n. In Sumatra, a measure of capacity: in Bencoolen, equal to the United States (Winchester) gallon; in Achin, to 5 pints.
8. To beat with a bamboo; punish by flogging with a smooth lath of bamboo; bastinado.

Wiktionary

1. n. A plant; a grass of the Poaceae family, characterised by its woody, hollow, round, straight, jointed stem.
2. n. The wood of the bamboo plant as a material or cane.
3. n. a didgeridoo
4. n. slang A British military or Honourable East India Company employee, who spent so much time in Indonesia, India, or Malaysia that they never went back home.
5. adj. Made of the wood of the bamboo.
6. v. transitive To flog with a bamboo cane.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A plant of the family of grasses, and genus Bambusa, growing in tropical countries.
2. v. To flog with the bamboo.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the hard woody stems of bamboo plants; used in construction and crafts and fishing poles
2. n. woody tropical grass having hollow woody stems; mature canes used for construction and furniture