Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sort of bean so called from being fed to horses, or from its large size. The Jamaica horse-bean is Canavalia gladiata, having large legumes.
  • noun In the southwestern United States, either of two species of palo verde, Parkinsonia aculeata and P. microphylla, the twigs of which are eaten by horses.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The seed of the broad-bean plant.
  • noun A large shrub or shrubby tree (Parkinsonia aculeata) having sharp spines and pinnate leaves with small deciduous leaflets and sweet-scented racemose yellow-orange flowers; grown as ornamentals or hedging or emergency food for livestock; originating in tropical America but naturalized in the Southern U. S.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a bean plant cultivated for use animal fodder
  • noun seed of the broad-bean plant
  • noun large shrub or shrubby tree having sharp spines and pinnate leaves with small deciduous leaflets and sweet-scented racemose yellow-orange flowers; grown as ornamentals or hedging or emergency food for livestock; tropical America but naturalized in southern United States

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The sand-box tree of the West Indies has large round fruits, containing seeds about as big as an English horsebean; and the capsule explodes, when ripe, with a detonation like a pistol, scattering its contents with as much violence as a shot from an air-gun.

    Science in Arcady Grant Allen 1873

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