cedar

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several Old World evergreen coniferous trees of the genus Cedrus, having stiff needles on short shoots and large erect seed cones with broad deciduous scales.
2. n. Any of several other evergreen coniferous trees or shrubs, such as the Alaska cedar, incense cedar, or red cedar.
3. n. The durable aromatic wood of any of these plants, especially that of the red cedar, often used to make chests.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A tree of the coniferous genus Cedrus, of which three species are known. The most noted is the cedar of Lebanon, C. Libani, native among the mountains of Syria, Asia Minor, and Cyprus. On Lebanon itself there still remains a grove of about 400 trees, some of them exceeding 40 feet in girth. The other representatives of the genus are the Atlas cedar, C. Atlantica, a native of Algeria, and the deodar or Himalayan cedar, C. Deodara. In their native forests they are of very slow growth, and form hard, durable timber.
2. n. The name given, usually with qualifying terms, to various coniferous trees, chiefly North American, and of genera nearly allied to Cedrus. The white cedar of the eastern United States is the Chamæcyparis sphæroidea, of swamps near the coast, and also the arbor-vitæ, Thuya occidentalis; on the Pacific coast it is the Libocedrus decurrens (also known as bastard, post, or incense cedar), and also Chamæcyparis Lawsoniana, the Port Orford or Oregon cedar. The red cedar is usually the Juniperus Virginiana, the odorous wood of which is often called pencil-cedar, from its extensive use in the manufacture of lead-pencils; west of the Rocky Mountains the red cedar is the Thuya gigantea, also called canoe-cedar. The cedar of Bermuda and Barbados is Juniperus Bermudiana; the Japan cedar, Cryptomeria Japonica. The stinking cedars of the United States are species of Torreya. The Himalayan cedar is the Juniperus excelsa; its wood resembles that of the pencil-cedar, but is harder, and has less of its peculiar odor. Washington cedar is the big-tree of California, Sequoia gigantea. The wood of most of these trees is soft, fine-grained, of a reddish color, and often fragrant.
3. n. A name popularly given in tropical regions to a considerable number of trees, mostly of the natural order Meliaceæ, in no way related to the preceding. That known variously as the West Indian cedar, the bastard or sweet-scented Barbados cedar, the Jamaica red cedar, and the Spanish, Havana, or Honduras cedar is the Cedrela odorata. The cedar of India and New South Wales is C. Toona; the red cedar of India, Soymida febrifuga; and the bastard cedar of India, Melia Azedarach. (See azedarach.) The white cedar of Australia is M. composita, and the red cedar Flindersia australis. Among trees of other orders, the bastard cedar of the West Indies is Guazuma tomentosa or G. ulmifolia; the white cedar of Guiana, Protium altissimum; and the white cedar of Dominica, Bignonia Leucoxylon. In India the name red cedar is sometimes given to the euphorbiaceous Bischoffia Javanica.
4. n. The wood of the cedar-tree (Cedrus), or (with or without a qualifying term) of any kind of tree called a cedar.
5. Pertaining to the cedar; made of cedar: as, a cedar twig.

Wiktionary

1. n. A coniferous tree of the genus Cedrus in the coniferous plant family Pinaceae.
2. n. The aromatic wood from such a tree.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The name of several evergreen trees. The wood is remarkable for its durability and fragrant odor.
2. adj. Of or pertaining to cedar.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. durable aromatic wood of any of numerous cedar trees; especially wood of the red cedar often used for cedar chests
2. n. any of numerous trees of the family Cupressaceae that resemble cedars
3. n. any cedar of the genus Cedrus