Also 8 blimbi, 9 bilimby, blimbing. [Tamul bilimbi, Malay bilimbing, Cingalese bilin.] A tree (Averrhoa Bilimbi, N.O. Oxalidaceæ), growing in India and Ceylon, which yields a juice used by the natives for the cure of skin-diseases; also its fruit.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), I. 247. There are fruits of various kinds, and particularly the blimbi, which has a sharp taste, and is a fine pickle.
1852. F. A. Neale, Resid. Siam, xii. 194. To see the fruit trees bowed down with their rich offering—… the callacca and the bilimby,… the custard apple and the pomegranate.
1866. Treas. Bot., 112. Averrhoa Bilimbi, the Blimbing.
