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  1. gamboge love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A brownish or orange resin obtained from several trees of the genus Garcinia of south-central Asia and yielding a golden-yellow pigment.
  2. n. A strong reddish yellow.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A gum resin, the inspissated juice of various species of the guttiferous genus Garcinia. The gamboge of commerce is mainly derived from G. Hanburyi, a handsome laurel-like tree of Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin China. (See cut under Garcinia.) It is of a rich brownish-orange color, becoming brilliant yellow when powdered, forming a yellow emulsion with water, and having a disagreeable acrid taste. It is a drastic purgative, but is seldom used in medicine except in combination. It is mostly used as a pigment in water-color painting, producing transparent yellows, verging on brown in deep masses. It is quite durable as a water-color, and fairly so in oil. Ceylon gamboge is obtained from G. Morella. False gamboge is a similar but inferior product of G. Xanthochymus. The so-called American gamboge is the juice of Vismia Guianensis and other species of South America. In doses of a dram or even less gamboge has produced death.

Wiktionary

  1. n. One of several species of trees of genus Garcinia found in South and Southeastern Asia.
  2. n. The resin of the gamboge tree.
  3. n. A deep yellow colour.
  4. adj. Of a deep yellow colour.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A concrete juice, or gum resin, produced by several species of trees in Siam, Ceylon, and Malabar. It is brought in masses, or cylindrical rolls, from Cambodia, or Cambogia, -- whence its name. The best kind is of a dense, compact texture, and of a beatiful reddish yellow. Taken internally, it is a strong and harsh cathartic and emetic.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a gum resin used as a yellow pigment and a purgative
  2. n. a strong yellow color

Etymologies

  1. New Latin cambugium, gambogium, after Cambodia . (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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  • knitandpurl "The lessons begin with exhaustive lists of colours — Gamboge, Indian Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre — with notes on combining them and colour wheels to show how they relate to one another."
    Nocturne: A Journey in Search of Moonlight by James Attlee, p 62 Nov 15, 2011

  • yarb "I don't know, but I heard that gamboge ghost of a Fedallah saying so..."

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 73 Jul 26, 2008

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‘gamboge’ has been looked up 2425 times, loved by 1 person, added to 48 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.