Gum Arabic

(redirected from acacia)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Gum Arabic

A gum made from sap of the acacia tree. In the 19th century, it was a major export in parts of east Africa and Sudan. Gum arabic is used in painting and in textiles, as well as in some foodstuff and as a desert on its own.

References in classic literature ?

With a single flip of the tip it sent poor Nobs sailing through the air a hundred feet above the ground, straight back into the clump of acacias from which the beast had leaped upon our kill--and then the grotesque thing sank lifeless to the ground.

View in context

The songs of the birds were heard in an aviary hard by, and the branches of laburnums and rose acacias formed an exquisite framework to the blue velvet curtains.

View in context

There was a smell of acacias in the air everywhere, and the laburnums were dripping gold over the walls of the gardens.

View in context

A few aloe plants and some chance-sown pellitory grew on the tops of the square pillars of the gates, which all but concealed the stems of a couple of thornless acacias that raised their tufted spikes, like a pair of green powder-puffs, in the yard.