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canebrake

American  
[keyn-breyk] / ˈkeɪnˌbreɪk /

noun

  1. a thicket of canes.


canebrake British  
/ ˈkeɪnˌbreɪk /

noun

  1. a thicket of canes

"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

Etymology

Origin of canebrake

An Americanism dating back to 1765–75; cane + brake 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Raines vividly conjures the watery landscape into which the Africans stepped, an alligator-filled swamp once thick with canebrake, now transformed by hydroelectric dams.

From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2022

“The Accidental City” by Lawrence N. Powell, a Tulane historian, is about the city’s first 100 years or so, from its founding in the canebrake along the Mississippi River to its gradual takeover by Anglo-Americans.

From New York Times • Aug. 4, 2016

For an artist of Faulkner's high purpose, the canebrake confusion of manner can only be deliberate�an esthetic and philosophic ruse to exclude reason from the genetic and historical workings of man's fate.

From Time Magazine Archive

There are many such echoes, because the Civil War was a destiny-sized war�2,300,000 Union men v. about 1,000,000 Confederates�crackling like a flaming canebrake from New Mexico to Chesapeake Bay.

From Time Magazine Archive

“First thing we’ll need is some sticks about five feet long. Take your ax, go over in that canebrake, and get us six of them.”

From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls

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