tamarisk

[ tam-uh-risk ]

noun
  1. any Old World tropical plant of the genus Tamarix, especially T. gallica, an ornamental Mediterranean shrub or small tree having slender, feathery branches.

  2. a shrub or small tree, Tamarix chinensis, of Eurasia, having scalelike leaves and clusters of pink flowers, naturalized in the southwestern U.S., where it has become a troublesome weed.

Origin of tamarisk

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English tamariscus, from Late Latin, variant of Latin tamarīc-, stem tamarix; further origin uncertain

Words Nearby tamarisk

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tamarisk in a sentence

  • He led across the Kuweik, through the orchards—dim and still, until at a tamarisk bush he halted.

    God Wills It! | William Stearns Davis
  • He shot a man seven years ago—one of Perucca's men, of course, who was creeping up through the tamarisk trees.

    The Isle of Unrest | Henry Seton Merriman
  • That monument, surrounded by tamarisk bushes, above which its summit rises, bears upon it a memorial figure by Flaxman.

  • The tamarisk appears afterwards to have given the idea of a subdivision of leaf more pure and quaint than that of the acanthus.

  • The soft crack of a duck-gun came to their ears from far off among the tamarisk bushes beside the green-grey waters.

    Bella Donna | Robert Hichens

British Dictionary definitions for tamarisk

tamarisk

/ (ˈtæmərɪsk) /


noun
  1. any of various ornamental trees and shrubs of the genus Tamarix, of the Mediterranean region and S and SE Asia, having scalelike leaves, slender branches, and feathery clusters of pink or whitish flowers: family Tamaricaceae

Origin of tamarisk

1
C15: from Late Latin tamariscus, from Latin tamarix

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