(n)handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark, Syn.Quassia amara, bitterwood
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English (GCIDE) v.0.53Collaborative International Dictionary (GCIDE)
n. [ NL. From the name of a negro, Quassy, or Quash, who prescribed this article as a specific. ] The wood of several tropical American trees of the order Simarubeæ, as Quassia amara, Picræna excelsa, and Simaruba amara. It is intensely bitter, and is used in medicine and sometimes as a substitute for hops in making beer. [ 1913 Webster ]