any of several usually spiny trees or shrubs belonging to the genus Prosopis, of the legume family, as P. juliflora or P. glandulosa, of western North America, having bipinnate leaves and beanlike pods and often forming dense thickets.
the wood of such a tree or shrub, used especially in grilling or barbecuing food.
any of various similar or related plants.
1830–40, < Mexican Spanish mezquite < Nahuatl mizquitl
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Birds sing among dense copses of mesquite trees; flowers hang heavily from bushes; ocelots and jaguars pass through.
From Slate ● May 26, 2025
It’s three miles from there to State Route 92, a trek through mesquite and grassland, floodplains and furrows that serve as a rough-hewn pathway to the two-lane blacktop and the interior that lies beyond.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2025
It would also go well with a grilled steak or another fatty meat with mesquite aroma.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
California’s groundwater-dependent ecosystems lie not only along streams, but also in habitats such as mountain meadows, coastal redwood forests and mesquite bushes among desert sand dunes.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2024
Thus, Celia cooked over a wood-burning stove when El Patron was visiting because he liked the smell of burning mesquite.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
The No. 2 company on the list, Hithium, opened a factory last year in Mesquite, Texas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
The new General Dynamics facility in Mesquite, Texas, will make 30,000 each month once it reaches its full capacity.
From New York Times ● May 29, 2024
The two had been high school friends and football teammates in their hometown of Mesquite, Texas, before they came to play for Utah.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 11, 2024
In Palm Springs, some neighbors of the former Mesquite Golf & Country Club resisted plans to restore that land to a natural state, saying they preferred the vista provided by a manicured 18-hole championship course.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2024
Mammals of the Mesquite Plains Biotic District in Texas and Oklahoma, and speciation in the central grasslands.
From Geographic Variation in the Harvest Mouse, Reithrodontomys megalotis, On the Central Great Plains And in Adjacent Regions by J. Knox Jones
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
