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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A red, resinous substance obtained from the fruit of a climbing palm (Daemonorops draco) of tropical Asia, formerly used in the manufacture of varnishes and lacquers.
  2. n. Any of several resins similar to this substance.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The name of several resins of a dark-red color. The dragon's-blood of commerce is an exudation upon the fruit of the Calamus Draco, one of the ratan-palms of the Malay archipelago. It is used in medicine for coloring plasters and tooth-powders, and in the arts for coloring varnish, staining marble, etc. It is largely used by the Chinese. The dragon's-blood of the island of Socotra in the Indian ocean, known from a very early date under this name (the cinnabar of Dioscorides), and supposed to be the product of species of Dracœna, is now but little sought. The dragon's-blood of the Canary islands is the astringent in spissated juice of the Dracœna Draco, and is no longer in use. The name has also been applied to an exudation obtained from the Pterocarpus Draco, a leguminous tree of the West Indies, and to that of the Croton Draco, a euphorbiaceous tree of Mexico; but neither substance is met with in commerce.
  2. n. In ceramics, a red color resembling arterial blood, with iridescence, in places, due to the presence of copper; a variety of sang-de-bœuf.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A bright red resin that is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: Croton, Dracaena, Daemonorops, Calamus rotang and Pterocarpus and is used in the manufacture of varnishes, lacquers, medicines, and incenses.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. a resinous substance obtained from the fruit of several species of Calamus, esp. from Calamus Rotang and Calamus Draco, growing in the East Indies. A substance known as dragon's blood is obtained by exudation from Dracæna Draco; also from Pterocarpus Draco, a tree of the West Indies and South America. The color is red, or a dark brownish red, and it is used chiefly for coloring varnishes, marbles, etc. Called also Cinnabar Græcorum.
  2. See Dragon's blood, Dragon's head, etc., under dragon.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a dark red resinous substance derived from various trees and used in photoengraving

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  • missanthropist In pharmacy, a rosin so named from the dragon's combating with the elephant. It is moderately heavy, friable or brittle, and in the mass of a dusky red; but when powdered of a bright scarlet, it has little smell, an is of a resinous and astringent taste. It is produced from no less than four vegetables of different part of the world.
    Daniel Fenning, Royal English Dictionary, 1775

    It has been used as an astringent in hemorrhages, etc, but now is rarely employed.
    Robley Dunglison, Dictionary of medical Science, 1844 Feb 4, 2009

  • john See also sangre de drago. Nov 18, 2008

  • whichbe A useful and powerful ingredient in love divination and other spells, used in a number of ways but usually involving the fire: "Buy a pennyworth of dragon's blood from a chemist, sprinkle the powder in the fire any night when the clock is striking twelve, and your future husband or wife will appear..." (Billson, 1865: 59-60) It was being used in this way well into the 20th century. Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary glosses Dragon's Blood as the herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum); A.R. Wright (1928: 69) defines it as "the resin from the Calamus draco and certain other trees, used chiefly in varnish-making." (Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore)

    -- From Julie K. Rose's blog. Nov 6, 2008

‘dragon's blood’ has been looked up 461 times, added to 3 lists, commented on 3 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.