Fustic
//ˈfʌstɪk// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A tropical American tree (Maclura tinctoria), whose wood produces a yellow dye. uncountable, usually
"[…]nor can I tell to this day what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same colour and smell."
- 2 A Eurasian smoketree (Cotinus coggygria), whose wood produces an orange dye. uncountable, usually
- 3 Wood of these trees. uncountable, usually
- 4 A yellow dye obtained from the wood of these trees. uncountable, usually
Example
More examples"[…]nor can I tell to this day what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same colour and smell."
Etymology
From Middle English fustik, from Middle French fustec, variant of fustet.
More for "fustic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.