balsa
Americannoun
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balsas
plural
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a tropical American tree, Ochroma pyramidale (lagopus ), of the bombax family, yielding an exceedingly light wood used for life preservers, rafts, toy airplanes, etc.
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a raft made of balsa wood.
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any life raft.
noun
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a bombacaceous tree, Ochroma lagopus , of tropical America
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Also called: balsawood. the very light wood of this tree, used for making rafts, etc
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a light raft
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of balsa
1770–80; < Spanish: boat
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.
See Examples For:
Mindy, who takes to a balsa Hobie as easily as Carol once did, has bigger plans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
The roomy interior was cooled by dry ice, with a single headlamp and a crush zone of balsa wood installed in front.
From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2022
He laid out the physics hurdles of such an epic voyage and even crafted a prototype spacecraft from poster board, balsa wood, and Elmer’s glue.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 27, 2022
"My mother gave me her grandfather's hammer and some nails and I had some very soft wood called balsa wood so I'd hammer nails into it and make sculptures," he said.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2022
“Good balsa wood isn’t so easy to come by these days, Colonel. I just didn’t think it was a good idea to pass up the chance to buy it.”
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
They were taking many of the same chances as their theoretical primitives: the raft was modeled after the balsas of the ancient Peruvians.
From Time Magazine Archive
According to Peruvian tradition, the Inca Tupac Yupanqui sailed a large fleet of balsas into the Pacific, about 1470 A.D.
From Time Magazine Archive
The balsas cannot beat to windward, but behave very well in shallow water with a favoring breeze.
From Inca Land Explorations in the Highlands of Peru by Hiram Bingham
He failed in this object, but brought off a few bladders full of water, and three or four balsas, very artificially sewed and filled with wind, which are used for landing on this dangerous coast.
Their boats or balsas were looked upon as ingenious contrivances.
From Notable Voyagers From Columbus to Nordenskiold by William Henry Giles Kingston
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