quillai
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of quillai
First recorded in 1710–20; from South American Spanish, from Araucanian quillai, quillay “soapbark tree”
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.
It was impossible for me to keep pace with the additional lore of my genial informant�hair displacing scales on aged fish, the spinning of a fine yarn from the undigested fibre of the quillai tree, squeezed from the sapo like fishing-gut from silk worms�even by swift thinking.
From Time Magazine Archive
When the female is ready to spawn he locates a quillai tree and, flipping himself into an overhanging branch, tears off a twig and drops back into the water with it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Quillai or Cully of the Chilians.
From Project Gutenberg
Instead of soap, they used the back of the quillai, which is an excellent substitute.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
