MAGUEY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Maguey

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Maguey n. (Bot.)

Any of several species of Agave, such as the century plant (Agave Americana), a plant requiring many years to come to maturity and blossoming only once before dying; and the Agave atrovirens, a Mexican plant used especially for making pulque, the source of the colorless Mexican liquor mescal; and the cantala (Agave cantala), a Philippine plant yielding a hard fibre used in making coarse twine. See Agave.

A hard fibre used in making coarse twine, derived from the Philippine Agave cantala (Agave cantala); also called cantala.

See images of 'Maguey'

Etymology of 'Maguey'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Maguey" Quotes from Famous Books

... out horizontally, and some of them even growing with their tops downward. These trees were cedars and pines; and we could perceive also the knotted limbs of huge cacti protruding from the crevices of the rocks. We could see the mezcal, or wild maguey plant, growing against the cliff—its scarlet leaves contrasting finely with the dark foliage of the cedars and cacti. Some of these plants stood out on the very brow of the overhanging precipice, and their long curving blades gave a ...

— The Desert Home - The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... relief. Guapo's experience went beyond the theoretical knowledge of the botanist. Guapo knew a vegetable which was good to eat—in fact, a most delicious vegetable when cooked with meat. This was no other than the fleshy heart of the wild maguey (agave), with part of the adhering roots. Among naked rocks, in the most barren parts of the desert wilderness, the wild agave may be found growing in luxuriance. Its thick, succulent blades, when split open, exude a cool liquid, that often gives considerable relief to the thirsty ...

— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... before. Two of your cayuses are astray down the Agua Fria. One of them is dragging a maguey lead-rope." ...

— Jim Waring of Sonora-Town - Tang of Life • Knibbs, Henry Herbert

... the nopal and maguey—home of Moctezuma and Malinche!—I cannot wring thy memories from my heart! Years may roll on, hand wax weak, and heart grow old, but never till both are cold can I forget thee! I would not; for thee ...

— The War Trail - The Hunt of the Wild Horse • Mayne Reid

... how much harm mescal (a kind of intoxicating drink made from the maguey or Mexican aloe) did among the neighbors. She did not doubt the woman's tale; only it was disappointing, when one thought a real customer had at last come to the panaderia, to find that it was not so. But the girl nodded sympathetically ...

— Out of the Triangle • Mary E. Bamford