rosewood

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various tropical or semitropical leguminous trees of the genera Tipuana, Pterocarpus, or Dalbergia, having hard reddish or dark wood with a strongly marked grain.
2. n. The wood of any of these trees, used in cabinetwork.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The wood of various Brazilian trees, especially of Dalbergia nigra. It is a fine hard cabinet-wood of a chestnut color streaked with black, or varying in the different sorts, and used chiefly in veneers. The name is due to the faint rosescent of some kinds when freshly cut. Other species of Dalbergia, species of Jacaranda, and perhaps of Machærium, produce the rosewood of commerce. The woods known as kingwood and violet-wood may be considered as varieties. See palisander, the several generic names, and the phrases below.
2. n. A wood, lignum rhodium, the source of oil of rhodium, or rosewood-oil; Canary rosewood. It is obtained in pieces a few inches thick from the root and stem of Convolvulus scoparius and C. floridus, small trees of the Canaries. See rosewood-oil.
3. n. Any of the trees producing rosewood.
4. n. In Australia, the timber of any one of four species of trees: Acacia glaucescens, called also rosewood acacia, kaareewan, and myall;
5. n. Stenochilus Mitchelli (Eremophila Mitchelli of Bentham), belonging to the family Myoporaceæ and often called sandalwood on account of its very fragrant wood;
6. n. Dysoxylum Fraseranum of the family Meliaceæ; and.
7. n. Synoum glandulosum, the fresh wood of which is of a deep red color and emits an odor like that of the common rose.

Wiktionary

1. n. The fragrant wood of Dalbergia nigra, a Brazilian tree in the legume family, which has a sweet smell.
2. n. Any of several dozen woods, resembling that of Dalbergia nigra in some respect.
3. n. The wood of a South American tree, Aniba rosaeodora, in the laurel family, with fragrant wood from which an essential oil is distilled.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A valuable cabinet wood of a dark red color, streaked and variegated with black, obtained from several tropical leguminous trees of the genera Dalbergia and Machærium. The finest kind is from Brazil, and is said to be from the Dalbergia nigra.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of those hardwood trees of the genus Dalbergia that yield rosewood--valuable cabinet woods of a dark red or purplish color streaked and variegated with black
2. n. hard dark reddish wood of a rosewood tree having a strongly marked grain; used in cabinetwork