Standard Lemma guide

warwood

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

Wood used for military materiel, especially in the context of historical warfare

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • 1880, Gerald Manley Hopkins, "Spring and fall to a young child" in T.M. Flormata-Ballesteros, Speech and Oral Communication, page 144, →ISBN. By and by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of warwood leafmeal lie

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From war + wood. Perhaps at least partly an allusion to koa (Acacia koa), a tree endemic to Hawaii with wood similar in quality to Juglans nigra, black walnut, and whose name in Hawaiian can also mean warrior, or to beefwood (Casuarina equisetifolia) which also has deep-colored, hard wood and in some Polynesian languages shares the same association between the name and words for warriors (both cognate with the Hawaiian term).