Log in or Sign up
  1. palmetto love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Any of several small, mostly tropical palms having fan-shaped leaves, especially one of the genus Sabal, such as S. palmetto of the southeast United States. Also called sabal.
  2. n. Leaf strips of any of these plants, used in weaving.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Any one of several fan-leafed palms of different genera. The one most properly so called is Sabal Palmetto, the cabbage-palmetto, a tree from 20 to 35 feet high, abounding on the southeast coast of the United States. It forms part of the device in the seal and flag of South Carolina, the Palmetto State. Its wood is not attacked by the teredo and is very durable under water, and is therefore much used for piles and wharves. The fibrous leaves of this and the dwarf palmetto, S. Adansoni, are made into hats, baskets, and fans, and also furnish an upholstering material. The palmetto, or hemp-palm, of southern Europe and North Africa, is Chamærops humilis, a dwarf species, affording abundant fiber, consumed chiefly as “vegetable horsehair.” The same names are given to the Chinese Trachycarpus excelsa, whose leafstalks on decaying leave a fibrous matter of textile use.
  2. n. Same as silk-top palmetto.

Wiktionary

  1. n. botany Two closely related genera of New World palms, of the family Arecaceae; (a) Serenoa repens or the saw palmetto is the only species of its genus; it has certain medicinal uses; (b) Sabul, represented by about 15 species, some known commonly as palmettos, others as fan palms.
  2. n. A native or resident of the American state of South Carolina (female: Palmetta).
  3. adj. Of or pertaining to a palmetto palm.
  4. adj. Of or pertaining the the US state of South Carolina, as the Palmetto State.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Bot.) A name given to palms of several genera and species growing in the West Indies and the Southern United States. In the United States, the name is applied especially to the Chamærops Palmetto, or Sabal Palmetto, the cabbage tree of Florida and the Carolinas. See Cabbage tree, under cabbage.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. any of several low-growing palms with fan-shaped leaves

Etymologies

  1. Spanish palmito, diminutive of palma, palm tree, from Latin; see palm2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘palmetto’.

Comments

No comments yet...

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

Tweets

Looking for tweets for palmetto.

‘palmetto’ has been looked up 884 times, added to 8 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 12.