(Also with hyphen; formerly sometimes as two words.) Name of various trees with white or light-colored wood; also, the wood of any of these. (Also attrib.)
Among these are the N. American tulip-tree (Liriodendron Tulipifera) and bass-wood (Tilia americana); the W. Indian wild cinnamon (Canella alba, which furnishes white cinnamon or whitewood bark), Tecoma or Tabebuia Leucoxylon (whitewood cedar) and T. pentaphylla, loblolly sweetwood (Oreodaphne or Ocotea Leucoxylon) and white sweetwood (Nectandra lencantha or Antilliana); the Australian cheesewood (Pittosporum bicolor), Lagunaria Patersoni, and Panax elegans (mowbulan whitewood). Also locally applied in England to the lime-tree (Tilia europæa) and the wayfaring-tree (Viburnum Lantana); in quot. 1733, ? the white poplar (Populus alba). See also white wood s.v. WHITE a. 11 b.
1683. J. Poyntz, Tobago, 29. The White-wood is a Tree of that singular vertue, the worm will seldom touch it.
1696. Plukenet, Almagestum, Opera 1769, II. 215. Leucoxylon … Barbadensibus ostratibus White-wood, Tulip-flower & aliquando Trumpet-flower nuncupatur.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 183. On the level Ground of this Farm … grows several of these White-wood Trees [viz. poplars, etc.]. Ibid., 184. The low Country-men sometimes call it Dutch Arbel, but the common Name among them is White-wood.
1750. G. Hughes, Nat. Hist. Barbados, v. 124. Where-ever a Manchaneel-tree grows, there is found a White-wood, or a Fig-tree, near it.
1778. J. Carver, Trav. N. Amer., xix. 499. The Bass or White Wood is a tree of a middling size, and the whitest and softest wood that grows.
1847. Halliwell, White-wood, the lime-tree.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Deacon’s Masterpiece, v. The panels of whitewood, that cuts like cheese.
1864. Grisebach, Flora W. Ind., 789. White-wood, Oreodaphne Leucoxylon, Nectandra lencantha, Tecoma Leucoxylon and pentaphylla. Ibid. Whitewood-bark, Canella alba. Whitewood-cedar, Tecoma Leucoxylon.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Lagunaria Patersoni, Whitewood, of Australia, Cow-itch-tree, or White Oak, of Norfolk Island.
1908. Kipling, Lett. Trav. (1920), 133. The lard, the apples, the butter, and the cheese, in beautiful whitewood barrel.
