silk-cotton tree

American  

[silk-kot-n] / ˈsɪlkˌkɒt n /

noun

1. any of several spiny trees belonging to the genus Ceiba, of the bombax family, having palmately compound leaves and seeds surrounded by silk cotton, especially C. pentandra, from which kapok is obtained.

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silk-cotton tree British  

noun

1. Also called: kapok tree.  any of several tropical bombacaceous trees of the genus Ceiba, esp Ceiba pentandra, having seeds covered with silky hairs from which kapok is obtained

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Etymology

Origin of silk-cotton tree

First recorded in 1705–15

Example Sentences

I visited Montserrat for the St. Patrick’s Festival this year; it began with a torch lighting at the silk-cotton tree at Cudjoe Head—a village named after the man who led the 1768 uprising.

From The New Yorker

Kapok, ka-pok′, n. a cottony or silky fibre covering the seeds of a species of silk-cotton tree, used for stuffing pillows, &c.

From Project Gutenberg

The ceiba, or silk-cotton tree, at whose base I find in Africa so many votive offerings of fetich worship, they found flourishing on Jamaica.

From Project Gutenberg

I was much surprised to notice the rapidity with which the silk-cotton tree burst into leaf.

From Project Gutenberg

With no possibility of communicating with the others, he felt his way to a hollow silk-cotton tree, into which he crawled, and climbed upon a heap of debris that stood in the centre.

From Project Gutenberg