hickory

/ˈhɪkəri/

/ˈhɪkəri/

Other forms: hickories

A hickory is a deciduous tree, and it's also the name of the edible nut it produces. Wood from hickory trees is extremely hard and durable.

The word hickory comes from the Algonquian pawcohiccora, the rich liquid that was extracted from hickory nuts and used as a beverage, cooking oil, and ingredient in many dishes. Besides being an important food source, North American hickory trees were used by indigenous peoples to make tools and weapons from the hard wood. Hickory bark was used to make fabric dyes and lye for soap. Today, wooden objects that need to be strong — like baseball bats, floorboards, and drumsticks — are often made from hickory.

Definitions of hickory

1. noun

   an American hardwood tree bearing edible nuts and timber, of the walnut family
   synonyms: hickory tree

   types:

   Carya aquatica, bitter pecan, water bitternut, water hickory

   hickory of southern United States having many narrow leaflets and rather bitter nuts

   Carya glabra, black hickory, brown hickory, pignut, pignut hickory

   an American hickory tree having bitter nuts

   Carya cordiformis, bitter hickory, bitter pignut, bitternut, bitternut hickory, swamp hickory

   hickory of the eastern United States having a leaves with 7 or 9 leaflets and thin-shelled very bitter nuts

   Carya laciniosa, big shagbark, big shellbark, big shellbark hickory, king nut, king nut hickory

   hickory of the eastern United States resembling the shagbark but having a much larger nut

   Carya myristicaeformis, Carya myristiciformis, nutmeg hickory

   hickory of southern United States and Mexico having hard nutmeg-shaped nuts

   Carya ovata, shagbark, shagbark hickory, shellbark, shellbark hickory

   North American hickory having loose grey shaggy bark and edible nuts

   Carya tomentosa, big-bud hickory, black hickory, mockernut, mockernut hickory, white-heart hickory

   smooth-barked North American hickory with 7 to 9 leaflets bearing a hard-shelled edible nut

   type of:

   nut tree

   tree bearing edible nuts
2. noun

   a valuable, tough, heavy hardwood of the various trees in the walnut family
   type of:

   wood

   the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees