castor-oil plant

[ kas-ter-oil, kah-ster- ]

noun

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.

Origin of castor-oil plant

First recorded in 1835–45

Also called castor bean.

Words Nearby castor-oil plant

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

How to use castor-oil plant in a sentence

In some inland districts beans of the castor oil plant, which grows in great abundance, are a lucrative article of trade.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 | Various
This is, if I recollect right, the castor-oil plant, and here are some of the castor-oil beans which Master Tommy has been eating.
Masterman Ready | Captain Frederick Marryat
The castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis) grows wild, but it is also cultivated in many plantations.
Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests | J. J. von Tschudi
The castor-oil plant, he says, grows especially in Java, where it forms immense fields and produces a great quantity of oil.
Origin of Cultivated Plants | Alphonse De Candolle
She cultivated also the common castor-oil plant, and a larger shrub ('Jatropha curcas'), which also yields a purgative oil.
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa | David Livingstone

British Dictionary definitions for castor-oil plant

castor-oil plant

noun

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

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

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