prickly ash
Americannoun
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Also called toothache tree. Also called Northern prickly ash,. a citrus shrub or small tree, Zanthoxylum americanum, having aromatic leaves and usually prickly branches.
noun
Etymology
Origin of prickly ash
An Americanism dating back to 1700–10
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.
After weeks of lockdown privation, the more iron-stomached among China’s diners craved a proper Sichuan-style hot pot, with fiery chili peppers and mouth-numbing prickly ash pods bobbing across a cauldron of red broth.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 16, 2020
They’re the dried citrus berries of the prickly ash tree, and they produce sensations unlike anything you’ll experience from a standard black peppercorn.
From Washington Post ● May 15, 2018
The ingredient called prickly ash in the article is more commonly known as Sichuan pepper and was, for a time, prohibited from importing to the USA because of fears it was contaminated.
From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2018
In both East Asia and North America, preparations of prickly ash are used as folk medicine for their anesthetic or pain‑masking properties.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 4, 2015
Hereabout also was to be found the prickly ash, a rather uncommon and graceful shrub.
From Toronto of Old by Scadding, Henry
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.
