Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various chiefly tropical trees of the genus Sapindus, having pulpy saponin-containing fruit that lathers like soap.
  • noun The fruit of any of these trees.
  • noun A buffaloberry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The fruit of one of several species of Sapindus; also, any of the trees producing it, and, by extension, any member of the genus.

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

  • noun botany Any woody plant of the genus Sapindus, which is eponymous of the Sapindaceae family
  • noun The fruit of such a plant, especially of the tree Sapindus saponaria.

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

  • noun a tree of the genus Sapindus whose fruit is rich in saponin

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

soap +‎ berry: the fleshy part of the fruit was used in washing linen.

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Examples

  • Another fruit of Asian origin, lychee is a member of the soapberry family.

    Exotic summer refreshment: a guide to Mexico's tropical fruit 2007

  • Another fruit of Asian origin, lychee is a member of the soapberry family.

    Exotic summer refreshment: a guide to Mexico's tropical fruit 2007

  • Species range from drought-resistant shrubs such as creosote bush Larrea tridentata and prickly pear Opuntia spp., sotol Dasilyrion wheeleri and Agave spp. to walnut Juglans spp., hackberry Celtis spp., oak Quercus spp. and soapberry trees Sapindus spp. in the richer soil of the canyons.

    Carlsbad Caverns National Park, United States 2009

  • These are followed by alder Alnus spp., willow, soapberry Sapindus drummondi and cottonwoodPopulus balsamifera var. trichocarpa.

    Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, United States 2008

  • A low cost, green eco friendly, healthy natural way to deal with lice is to make a homemade liquid from soapberry which grows on the Chinaberry tree and has been used for thousands of years.

    Itchy splatypus 2008

  • My Parisian friends do their laundry using soap nuts, the dried fruit of the Chinese soapberry tree Sapindus mukorrosi.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • My Parisian friends do their laundry using soap nuts, the dried fruit of the Chinese soapberry tree Sapindus mukorrosi.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • My Parisian friends do their laundry using soap nuts, the dried fruit of the Chinese soapberry tree Sapindus mukorrosi.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • Other plants that may have found their way from South America to Polynesia include a subspecies of calabash, or bottle gourd, and the soapberry, a plant that can be used as a natural detergent.

    Kon Tiki Fried Chicken? 2007

  • The gold buyer's wife had told him to watch for a shortcut path just after a soapberry tree.

    Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine 2003

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