hau tree

American  

[hou tree] / ˈhaʊ ˌtri /

noun

1. a clambering tree, Hibiscus tileaceus, of tropical shores, having leathery, ovate leaves and yellow flowers that turn dark red as they fade, and yielding a fiber used as cordage.

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Etymology

Origin of hau tree

First recorded in 1840–45; from Hawaiian hau “hau tree” + tree

Example Sentences

She is a hau tree, and where Palila's malo is hung no hau tree grows to this day, through the power of Ku, Palila's god.

From The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai by Beckwith, Martha Warren

The sign of the shallow sea kapu was the placing of branches of the hau tree all along the shore.

From Hawaiian Folk Tales A Collection of Native Legends by Thrum, Thomas G. (Thomas George)

The tourist women, under the hau tree arbour that lines the Moana hotel beach, gasped when Lee Barton and his wife Ida emerged from the bath-house.

From On the Makaloa Mat by London, Jack

Percival Ford looked at the Kanaka half-breed who played under the hau tree, and it seemed, as by some illumination, that he was gazing on a wraith of himself. 

From The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii by London, Jack

She remembered listening as he sang them over and over under the hau tree at Waikiki. 

From The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii by London, Jack