Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
adj
Of the colour of rhubarb: either brownish-yellow (the colour of rhubarb rhizomes and roots used for medicinal purposes), or pale red (often the colour of the leafstalks of common rhubarb).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any plant of the genus Rheum, especially Rheum rhabarbarum, having large leaves and long green or reddish acidic leafstalks that are edible, in particular when cooked (although the leaves are mildly poisonous).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The leafstalks of common rhubarb or garden rhubarb (usually known as Rheum × hybridum), which are long, fleshy, often pale red, and with a tart taste, used as a food ingredient; they are frequently stewed with sugar and made into jam or used in crumbles, pies, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: attributive, countable, often, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The dried rhizome and roots of Rheum palmatum (Chinese rhubarb) or Rheum officinale (Tibetan rhubarb), from China, used as a laxative and purgative.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A Royal Air Force World War II code name for operations by aircraft (fighters and fighter-bombers) involving low-level flight to seek opportunistic targets.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, countable, historical, uncountable
Topics: aeronautics, aerospace, aviation, business, engineering, government, military, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, politics, war
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A ditch alongside a road or highway.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Qualifier: Saskatchewan; Ottawa Valley; Saskatchewan; Ottawa Valley
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
General background noise caused by several simultaneous indecipherable conversations, which is created in films, stage plays, etc., by actors repeating the word rhubarb; hence, such noise in other settings.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Nonsense; false utterance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, broadly, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An excited, angry exchange of words, especially at a sporting event.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A brawl.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, broadly, countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Of fighter aircraft: to fire at a target opportunistically.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK
Topics: aeronautics, aerospace, aviation, business, engineering, government, military, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, politics, war
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Of an actor in a film, stage play, etc.: to repeat the word rhubarb to create the sound of indistinct conversation; hence, to converse indistinctly, to mumble.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To articulate indistinctly or mumble (words or phrases); to say inconsequential or vague things because one does not know what to say, or to stall for time.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
long pinkish sour leafstalks usually eaten cooked and sweetened
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: pieplant
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: vegetable, veggie, veg
noun
plants having long green or reddish acidic leafstalks growing in basal clumps; stems (and only the stems) are edible when cooked; leaves are poisonous
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: rhubarb plant
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: herb, herbaceous plant
Narrower terms: Himalayan rhubarb, Indian rhubarb, red-veined pie plant, Rheum australe, Rheum emodi, pie plant, garden rhubarb, Rheum cultorum, Rheum rhabarbarum, Rheum rhaponticum, Chinese rhubarb, Rheum palmatum
History
From Middle English rubarbe, from Anglo-Norman reubarbe (modern French rhubarbe), from Late Latin reubarbarum, rheubarbarum, rubarbera, rybarba, probably from Koine Greek ῥῆον βαρβαρικόν (rhêon barbarikón), from ῥῆον (rhêon, “rhubarb”) + Ancient Greek βαρβαρικόν (barbarikón), neuter of βαρβαρικός (barbarikós, “foreign; barbaric”) (English barbaric). There is also a Medieval Latin variant rabarbarum, which appears to be influenced by Ancient Greek ῥᾶ (rhâ, “rhubarb”), and gave rise to some of the forms in modern languages. The Ancient Greek variant term appears to have been folk-etymologically influenced by Ancient Greek Ῥᾶ (Rhâ, “the River Volga”), which is in the region from which the plant came to the Mediterranean. The ultimate origin of the Ancient Greek terms is, however, Proto-Iranian *(h)rabā́š (“rhubarb, fennel”). The word is cognate with Catalan ruibarbre, Italian rabarbaro, Dutch rabarber, German Rhabarber, Old Occitan reubarbe, Portuguese ruibarbo, Spanish ruibarbo.
Attributed to the circa 1852 practice by the theatre company of English actor Charles Kean (1811–1868) at the Princess’s Theatre, London, of actors saying the word rhubarb repetitively to mimic the sound of indistinct conversation, the word having been chosen because it does not have harsh-sounding consonants or clear vowels. The baseball senses are said to have been coined by the American sports writer Garry Schumacher and popularized by the American baseball commentator Red Barber (1908–1992). Barber also claimed to have started using the word in the 1940s, based on the practice in “early radio dramas” (presumably in the US, circa 1930) of actors repetitively voicing rhubarb. However, unlike the UK usage, he felt the practice applied to muttering by an angry mob, and so applied the word to arguments on the baseball field where he could not distinguish the words.
Across languages
75 source translations are retained for this English entry.
