Derris
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A climbing leguminous plant of Southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific Islands, Derris elliptica, whose roots are a source of rotenone. uncountable
- 2 any of various usually woody vines of the genus Derris of tropical Asia whose roots yield the insecticide rotenone; several are sources of native fish and arrow poisons wordnet
Etymology
From New Latin and translingual Derris, from Ancient Greek δέρρις (dérrhis, “leather, skin”), referring to the leathery pods, from δέρω (dérō, “I skin, I flay”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.