barbasco
[bahr-bas-koh, -bah-skoh]
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noun, plural bar·bas·cos.
a shrub or small tree, Jacquinia barbasco, of tropical America, the source of a substance used to stun fish so they can be caught easily.
any similar plant yielding a substance that stuns or kills fish.
the fish-stunning or fish-killing substance obtained from these plants.
Origin of barbasco
1855–60; < American Spanish, said to be alteration of verbasco mullein < Latin verbascum
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for barbasco
Historical Examples of barbasco
They catch fish with bone hooks, seines, spears, and by poisoning the water with barbasco.
The Andes and the AmazonJames Orton
The Savanerics poison pools with pounded leaves of the barbasco, and thus obtain fish without much labor.
The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 1Hubert Howe Bancroft