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California nutmeg

American  

noun

  1. a tall, pungently aromatic California evergreen tree, Torreya californica, of the yew family, having a fissured, gray-brown bark and small, purple-streaked, green fruit.

Etymology

Origin of California nutmeg

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

It is the tree locally known under the name of the California nutmeg.

From Darwiniana; Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism by Gray, Asa

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.

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