castor-oil plant

American  

[kas-ter-oil, kah-ster-] / ˈkæs tərˈɔɪl, ˈkɑ stər- /

noun

1. a tall plant, Ricinus communis, of the spurge family, cultivated for its ornamental foliage and having poisonous seeds that are the source of castor oil.

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castor-oil plant British  

noun

1. Also called (US and Canadian): castor bean. a tall euphorbiaceous Indian plant, Ricinus communis, cultivated in tropical regions for ornament and for its poisonous seeds, from which castor oil is extracted

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Etymology

Origin of castor-oil plant

First recorded in 1835–45

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

castor-oil plant

The castor-oil plant has been introduced, but as yet the unprofitable silk-tree and the wild bushes are far more common.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 428 Volume 17, New Series, March 13, 1852 by William Chambers

Our Indians had for torches long strips of the castor-oil plant, which the wind only ignited more thoroughly, and with these they led the way.

From Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I. by John L. Stephens

Near this coast nothing grows; further inland, an occasional green castor-oil plant, and a few grasshoppers, true friends of the desert, may be met with.

From The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

The chief vegetable purgatives are aloes, colocynth, gamboge, jalap, scammony, seeds of castor-oil plant, croton-oil, elaterium, the hellebores, and colchicum.

From Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology by W. G. Aitchison (William George Aitchison ) Robertson

The cultivation of the olive and the castor-oil plant are industries for which this soil and climate are extraordinarily well adapted.

From Explorations in Australia, Illustrated, by John Forrest

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