upas
Americannoun
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the poisonous milky sap of a large tree, Antiaris toxicaria, of the mulberry family, native to tropical Asia, Africa, and the Philippine Islands, used for arrow poison.
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the tree itself.
noun
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a large moraceous tree of Java, Antiaria toxicaria, having whitish bark and poisonous milky sap
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the sap of this tree, used as an arrow poison
Etymology
Origin of upas
1775–85; < Javanese: poison, especially dart poison
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.
From upas to coco de mer, an arboreal odyssey.
From Nature • Jun. 5, 2018
Another was that Britain's tax, although set upas an import duty, seemed in effect an income tax�and therefore in violation of an Anglo-American agreement designed to prevent double taxation on incomes.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Did Sir Within strike you as looking so very ill—so much cut upas Mr. Grenfell phrases it?"
From Luttrell Of Arran Complete by Lever, Charles James
Here we were shown a specimen of the upas tree: it was growing close to a small stone fountain in the vicinity of some straggling huts.
From Borneo and the Indian Archipelago with drawings of costume and scenery by Marryat, Frank
A third branch of the upas tree of poisonous ascendency described by Mr. Gladstone during the election of 1868, still awaited his axe.
From The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (Vol 2 of 3) by Morley, John
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.
