sandalwood

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several tropical Asian trees of the genus Santalum, especially S. album, having aromatic yellowish heartwood used in cabinetmaking and wood carving and yielding an oil used in perfumery.
2. n. Any of several tropical Asian trees of the genera Adenanthera, Myroporum, and Pterocarpus.
3. n. The wood of any of these trees.
4. n. A light to moderate or grayish brown.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The fragrant wood of the heart and roots of a tree of several species belonging to the genus Santalum; also, the tree itself. The most important species is S. album, an evergreen 20 or 30 feet high, with the aspect of privet. It is native in dryish localities in southern India, ascending the mountains to an altitude of 3,000 feet. The heart-wood is yellowish—brown, very hard and close-grained, scented with an oil still more abundant in the root, which is distilled for perfumery purposes and is in great request. The wood is much used for carving, making ornamental boxes, etc., being valued as a protective from insects as well as for its perfume. It is also extensively used, especially in China (which is the great market for sandalwood), to burn as incense, both in temples and in dwellings. Other sandalwoods, from which for a time after their discovery large supplies were obtained, are S. Freycinetianum (its wood called citron or yellow sandalwood) and S. pyrularium of the Hawaiian Islands, S. Yasi of the Fijis, S. Austro-caledonicum of New Caledonia, and Fusanws (Santalum) spicatus of Australia, but these sources were soon nearly exhausted. In India and New Caledonia sandalwood is systematically cultivated. See almug and Fusanus. Also called sanderswood.
2. n. Another East Indian tree, Adenanthera pavonina, with red wood, used as a dyestuff and otherwise. See Adenanthera.
3. n. In Australia, a small tree, Mida persicaria.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various tropical trees of the genus Santalum, native to India, Australia, Hawaii, and many south Pacific islands.
2. n. The aromatic heartwood of these trees used in ornamental carving, in the construction of insect-repellent boxes and chests, and as a source of certain perfumes.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The highly perfumed yellowish heartwood of an East Indian and Polynesian tree (Santalum album), and of several other trees of the same genus, as the Hawaiian Santalum Freycinetianum and S. pyrularium, the Australian S. latifolium, etc. The name is extended to several other kinds of fragrant wood.
2. n. Any tree of the genus Santalum, or a tree which yields sandalwood.
3. n. The red wood of a kind of buckthorn, used in Russia for dyeing leather (Rhamnus Dahuricus).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. close-grained fragrant yellowish heartwood of the true sandalwood; has insect repelling properties and is used for carving and cabinetwork