hickory

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several chiefly North American deciduous trees of the genus Carya, having smooth or shaggy bark, compound leaves, and hard smooth stones or nuts, each containing an edible seed and surrounded by a husk that splits into four valves.
2. n. The hard, tough, heavy wood of such a tree.
3. n. A walking stick or switch made from such wood.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A North American tree belonging to the genus Carya, of the natural order Juglandeœ. It has alternate pinnate leaves, no stipules, and monœcious flowers, the sterile in catkins, the fertile solitary or in small clusters or spikes. The fruit is a dry drupe with a bony nut-shell, containing a large 4-lobed orthotropous seed. See Carya.
2. n. The wood of this tree. It is heavy, strong, and flexible, and very valuable, being used for a great variety of purposes. That of the shagbark or shellbark is the most valuable.
3. n. In Australia, a name applied to several trees the wood of which is used for the same purposes as that of the American hickories, especially the hickory-acacia, Acacia leprosa, the blackwood of Australia, Acacia Melanoxylon, and the hickory-eucalyptus, Eucalyptus punctata.
4. n. In Tasmania, a shrub or small tree of the rue family, Phebalium squameum, conspicuous for its strong smell, silvery under-surface of the leaves, and small pink-and-white flowers.
5. n. Same as white-heart hickory.
6. n. Same as pignut, 2.
7. n. Same as bitternut.
8. n. The shellbark, Hicoria ovata.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Of or pertaining to the hickory tree or its wood.
2. n. Any of various deciduous hardwood trees of the genus Carya or Annamocarya.
3. n. uncountable The wood of these trees.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) An American tree of the genus Carya, of which there are several species. The shagbark is the Carya alba, and has a very rough bark; it affords the hickory nut of the markets. The pignut, or brown hickory, is the Carya glabra. The swamp hickory is Carya amara, having a nut whose shell is very thin and the kernel bitter.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. valuable tough heavy hardwood from various hickory trees
2. n. American hardwood tree bearing edible nuts