betel

or be·tel pepper

[ beet-l ]

/ ˈbit l /

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noun

an East Indian pepper plant, Piper betle, the leaves of which are chewed with other ingredients.

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Origin of betel

1545–55; <Portuguese bétele, bétere<Malayalam viṟṟila or Tamil veṟṟilai

Words nearby betel

betatopic, betatron, beta version, betazole, betcha, betel, Betelgeuse, betel nut, betel palm, bête noire, beth

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use betel in a sentence

Later, if they decide to separate, the couple must break a betel nut to break the union.
A Little Too Off the Beaten Path in Burma|Katya Cengel|June 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Alila's grandmother prepared a quantity of betel before the new baby was born.
Alila, Our Little Philippine Cousin|Mary Hazelton Wade
The Chinese and natives of the place chew this nut with betel-leaf and calcined mussel-shells.
A Woman's Journey Round the World|Ida Pfeiffer
The Dhimal propitiate Data and Bedata by presents of betel-leaf and red-lead.
The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies|Robert Gordon Latham

All men who attended had a head-dress made of the leaf petiole of the betel tree and the red leaves of the dongola plant.
The Head Hunters of Northern Luzon From Ifugao to Kalinga|Cornelis De Witt Willcox
The ex-queen chewed betel and smiled at him, and he, in return, tickled the soles of her feet till she screamed.
Dry Fish and Wet|Anthon Bernhard Elias Nilsen

British Dictionary definitions for betel

betel

/ (ˈbiːtəl) /

noun

an Asian piperaceous climbing plant, Piper betle, the leaves of which are chewed, with the betel nut, by the peoples of SE Asia

Word Origin for betel

C16: from Portuguese, from Malayalam vettila

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012