ambatch

American  

[am-bach] / ˈæm bætʃ /

noun

1. an Egyptian tree, Aeschynomene elaphroxylon, of the legume family, having a light-colored, spongy wood.

---

ambatch British  

/ ˈæmˌbætʃ /

noun

1. a tree or shrub of the Nile Valley, Aeschynomene elaphroxylon, valued for its light-coloured pithlike wood

---

Etymology

Origin of ambatch

1860–65; perhaps < a source akin to Amharic əmb ( w ) ac'o, name for Rumex alismafolius

Example Sentences

Its longest leg, called the White Nile, pours out of Lake Victoria through Uganda's Owen Falls Dam, drops swiftly to the Sudan, where it snarls itself in the tangled vegetation of the Sudd�50,000 sq. mi. of swamp, amidst whose 14-ft.-papyrus thickets and convoluted blue ambatch flowers the river loses half its water in evaporation and drainage.

From Time Magazine Archive

Having secured the vessel by carrying out an anchor astern and burying it on the marsh, while a rope fastened from the bow to the high reeds kept her stern to the stream, all hands jumped into the canal and commenced dragging out the entangled masses of weeds, reeds, ambatch wood, grass, and mud that had choked the entrance.

From Project Gutenberg

The natives navigate the river in two kinds of canoes-one of which is a curious combination of raft and canoe formed of the Ambatch wood, which is so light, that the whole affair is portable.

From Project Gutenberg

Marshes and ambatch, far as the eye can reach.

From Project Gutenberg

The Bahr el Gazal extends due west from this point for a great distance, the entire river being a system of marshes, stagnant water overgrown by rushes, and ambatch wood, through which a channel has to be cleared to permit the passage of a boat.

From Project Gutenberg