Hickory

//ˈhɪkəɹiː// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various deciduous hardwood trees of the genera Carya and Annamocarya, one species of which, Carya illinoinensis, is the source of pecan nuts. countable

    "[H]e came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump And said, "Boy, let me tell you what.""

  2. 2
    American hardwood tree bearing edible nuts wordnet
  3. 3
    The wood of these trees. uncountable
  4. 4
    valuable tough heavy hardwood from various hickory trees wordnet
  5. 5
    A coarse, durable cotton fabric. countable, uncountable

    "The loggers wore hickory shirts."

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  1. 6
    A club with a head made from hickory wood. countable, informal

    "What you find out is, if you have good hickories, you can play anywhere from 5,300 yards to 6,100 with no problem."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A number of places in the United States:; A census-designated place in Graves County, Kentucky, named for the hickory trees.
  2. 2
    A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Harford County, Maryland.
  3. 3
    A number of places in the United States:; A town in Newton County, Mississippi, named for "Old Hickory" (Andrew Jackson).
  4. 4
    A number of places in the United States:; A city mostly in Catawba County, North Carolina, named after the Hickory Tavern.
  5. 5
    A number of places in the United States:; A town in Murray County, Oklahoma.
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  1. 6
    A number of places in the United States:; A census-designated place in Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania.
  2. 7
    A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in the city of Chesapeake, Virginia.
  3. 8
    A number of places in the United States:; A number of townships, listed under Hickory Township.

Synonyms

All synonyms
cudgelebonyhickory treeoakspeedtree

Example

More examples

"More than 250 fish species use the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries for some portion of their life cycles, including American and hickory shad, river herring, striped bass, eel, weakfish, bluefish, flounder, oysters, and blue crabs. More than 300 migratory bird species can also be found in the watershed."

Etymology

A shortening of pockerchicory/pokickery/pohickery, from Powhatan pawcohiccora.

Related phrases

Hickory CountyHickory PointTexas hickorybanded hickory borerbeaked hickoryblack hickorybrown hickoryhickory clothhickory elmhickory eucalyptushickory girdlerhickory golf

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.