Forms: 7–8 teke, 8 teek, tecka, 8–9 teck, 9 tick, tæk, teake, 8– teak. [ad. Pg. teca (1602–1644 in Yule), ad. Malayāl. tēkka; in Tamil tēkku, Telugu tēku, Tulu tekki, Canarese tēgu, tēga, tēṅgu.]
1. A large East Indian tree (Tectona grandis, N.O. Verbenaceæ), with opposite egg-shaped leaves and panicles of white flowers; more usually, its timber, a dark, heavy, oily wood of great strength and durability, used largely in the construction of ships and railway carriages, and in India also for building houses, and for sleepers, furniture, etc.; distinctively called Indian Teak.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 142. The Sheds here were round, thatch’d, and lined with broad Leaves of Teke (the Timber Ships are built with). Ibid., 178. Teke … is the firmest Wood they have for Building.
1757. J. H. Grose, Voy. E. Indies, 174. As to the wood, it is a sort, called teak, to the full as durable as oak.
1783. Justamond, trans. Raynal’s Hist. Indies, II. 244. Their ships … of a very strong wood called Teck.
1793. Hodges, Trav. India, 87. I found the teek, a timber remarkable for its hardness and size.
1808. A. Parsons, Trav., x. 215. This timber and plank are peculiar to India only;… it is called tick.
1811. Niebuhr’s Trav. Arab., cliv. That excellent wood called Tæk.
1853. Wayland, Mem. Judson, I. xi. 413. Large forests of teak have been discovered in the interior [of Burma].
1883. Chambers’s Encycl., IX. 325/1. Indian Teak (Tectona grandis).
2. Applied, usually with defining words, to other trees which produce strong or durable timber, or otherwise resemble the Indian teak; as
African Teak, Oldfieldia africana (N.O. Euphorbiaceæ), or its wood, which is too heavy to be exclusively used in shipbuilding. Bastard Teak, an East Indian tree, Pterocarpus Marsupium, from which kino is obtained; yielding hard and durable timber. Ben Teak, Lagerstrœmia microcarpa, of tropical Asia; also, a poor quality of teak. Teak of New South Wales, a small tree, Endiandra glauca, N.O. Leguminosæ, the wood of which is fine-grained and dense (Miller, Plant-n., 1884). Teak of New Zealand, the PURIRI, Vitex littoralis. White Teak, of Queensland, a species of Flindersia, N.O. Meliaceæ. In Australia also applied to Dissilaria baloghioides, N.O. Euphorbiaceæ (Morris, Austral Eng.).
1842. Brande, Dict. Sc., etc., 1217/1. A species of timber called African teak is pretty largely imported … from the west coast of Africa…. It is not teak.
1858. Hogg, Veg. Kingd., 663. African Teak, or Oak, is the wood of Oldfieldia africana.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1128. Ben Teak, the wood of Lagerströmia microcarpa; also applied to inferior Teak. New South Wales Teak, Endiandra glauca.
1878. H. M. Stanley, Dark Cont., II. vi. 156. Many a village stood … embowered in the thick shade of tamarind and bombax, teak.
1883. Chambers’s Encycl., IX. 323/1. The leaves of many different trees have been brought to botanists as those of the African teak.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Vitex littoralis, New Zealand Teak or Puriri-tree.
3. attrib. and Comb., as teak forest, ship, timber, -tree, -wood; teak-built (in quot. fig.), -lined, -producing adjs.; teak-oak, the teak (sense 1).
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xv. 177. Gundavee…, where good Quantities of Teak Timber are cut.
1783. J. Price, Tracts, I. 191 (Y.). Ships … built in India of tekewood, and bound with iron spikes and bolts.
1783. Rennell, Mem. Mag. Hindoostan, vi. 89, note. Teek ships of 40 years old and upwards, are no uncommon objects.
1800. Misc. Tr., in Asiat. Ann. Reg., 187. During the two last days I had occasionally observed the teak-tree.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxii. That teak-built and trim ballad.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Iron-Clad Ships, ii. 26. In the ‘Bellerophon,’ the armour-plating is 6 inches, and the teak backing 10 inches thick.
1884. Miller, Eng. Plant-n., African Teak-tree, Oldfieldia africana.
1896. Daily News, 30 Dec., 6/3. The library at Groote Schuur is a cosy, teak-lined room.
