Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The leaves or bark of several plants (willow, sumac, etc.), smoked either with or without tobacco by the American Indians.
  • noun Specifically, the trailing ericaceous plant Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi,or bearberry, common northward in America, as well as in the Old World.
  • noun The silky cornel, Cornus sericea, whose bark was used in the manner mentioned in def. 1; doubtless, also, the closely related Cornus stolonifera, or red-osier dogwood. In this sense best known in America.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative form of kinnikinnick.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word kinnikinick.

Examples

  • They all smoked, the boys soon discovering that it was not tobacco but "kinnikinick" -- the inner bark of young willow sprouts dried and pulverized -- which was in the pipes.

    Far Past the Frontier W. H. [Illustrator] Fry 1913

  • I'm for holding a peace talk, as the Injuns say, d-- n 'em, burying the axe, and taking a whiff or two at the kinnikinick of friendship.

    Nick of the Woods Robert M. Bird

  • I remember on this occasion of our last sugar bush in Minnesota, that I stood one day outside of our hut and watched the approach of a visitor -- a bent old man, his hair almost white, and carrying on his back a large bundle of red willow, or kinnikinick, which the Indians use for smoking.

    Indian Boyhood 1902

  • I remember on this occasion of our last sugar bush in Minnesota, that I stood one day outside of our hut and watched the approach of a visitor -- a bent old man, his hair almost white, and carrying on his back a large bundle of red willow, or kinnikinick, which the Indians use for smoking.

    Indian Child Life Charles Alexander Eastman 1898

  • Huckleberries flourish on the timbered slopes, and kinnikinick gladdens many a gravelly stretch or slope.

    Wild Life on the Rockies Enos Abijah Mills 1896

  • Before long it was dashed against a granite cliff and fell to the ground; but in a moment, the wind found it and drove it, with a shower of trash and dust, bounding and leaping across a barren slope, plump into this kinnikinick nest.

    Wild Life on the Rockies Enos Abijah Mills 1896

  • Thrust out and lifted just above the snow of the tuft before me was the jeweled hand of a kinnikinick; and every snow-deposit on the slope was held in place by the green arms of this plant.

    Wild Life on the Rockies Enos Abijah Mills 1896

  • One morning, while visiting in a Blackfoot Indian camp, I saw the men smoking kinnikinick leaves, and I asked if they had any legend concerning the shrub.

    Wild Life on the Rockies Enos Abijah Mills 1896

  • Up the slope I saw a young pine standing in a kinnikinick snow-cover.

    Wild Life on the Rockies Enos Abijah Mills 1896

  • The pioneer work done by the kinnikinick on a barren and rocky realm has often resulted in the establishment of a flourishing forest there.

    Wild Life on the Rockies Enos Abijah Mills 1896

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.