Mesquite Meaning
/mɛsˈkiːt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny of several deciduous trees of the genus Prosopis found in America, and used as forage, which have long, beige seed and bean pods which may be dried and ground into a sweet, nutty flour.
nounThe wood of these trees, used for smoking food, or charcoal made from this wood.
Sentence Examples
The mesquite tree is native to Texas.
We used mesquite wood for the barbecue.
We cooked the steaks over a smoky mesquite fire.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the dry deserts of the southwest, the ____ tree provides wood for barbecues.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The chef used dried ____ wood to smoke the meat, giving it a distinctive and highly delicious smoky flavor.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Spanish mezquite, mizquite, from Nahuatl mizquitl (“the mesquite tree”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Between these canyons the river has a low but rather narrow flood plain, with cottonwood groves scattered here and there, and a chaparral of mesquite bearing beans and thorns."
— 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 20:
"[…] and no botanist could for a moment fail to recognize this fact, especially as just beyond its banks there is growing on every hand the mesquite, the everywhere-present species of the Lower Sonoran zone."
— 1909, Volney Morgan Spalding, Distribution and movements of desert plants:
"Tucson is situated in beautiful mesquite riverbed country, overlooked by the snowy Catalina range."
— 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
"Southward and in the very center of the plain is La Mesa, hidden in the mesquite and with splendid, typically dug, wells."
— 1900, David Prescott Barrows, The ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the dry deserts of the southwest, the ____ tree provides wood for barbecues.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The chef used dried ____ wood to smoke the meat, giving it a distinctive and highly delicious smoky flavor.