Definitions

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

  • noun A plant (Schoenocaulon officinale) found from Mexico to Peru, having long spikelike racemes of small flowers, long narrow leaves, and seeds that contain veratridine and other alkaloids.
  • noun A preparation of the seeds of this plant, used as an insecticide and in some medicinal preparations.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See cevadilla, and caustic barley (under barley).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A Mexican liliaceous plant (Schœnocaulon officinale); also, its seeds, which contain the alkaloid veratrine. It was formerly used in medicine as an emetic and purgative.

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

  • noun A Mexican and Central American plant of the lily family (Schoenocaulon officinale).
  • noun The seeds of this plant, used in medicine and insecticides.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish cebadilla, diminutive of cebada, barley, from Latin cibātus, from past participle of cibāre, to feed, from cibus, food.]

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Examples

  • Homeopathic remedies to consider include sabadilla 6th to the 30th potency, which is indicated for spasmodic sneezing with a running nose and redness of the eyes.

    THE NATURAL REMEDY BIBLE JOHN LUST 2003

  • For instance, there is the veratrine that may be derived from the sabadilla seeds which grow in the West Indies and Mexico.

    The Treasure-Train 1908

  • The sabadilla is dextro-rotary; the death camas is levo-rotary.

    The Treasure-Train 1908

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