[Malay tūba.]
1. In the Malay archipelago, the Philippines, etc., the name of species of Dalbergia from the roots of which an intoxicating juice is extracted; also, the juice itself, which is used as a fish-poison. Also applied to the berry of Anamirta Cocculus (known as cocculus indicus), and to the fruits of Jatropha Curcas and Croton Tiglium, used for the same purpose. Also attrib.
[1894. Dennys, Dict. Malaya, 416. Tuba, the name of a creeping plant (dalbergia) the root of which is used to stupefy fish for the purpose of capture.]
1895. Swettenham, Malay Sk., 225. The water is poisoned with the juice of the tuba root.
1898. Blackw. Mag., March, 414/1. This is how we fished with the tuba six years ago.
1899. W. H. Furness, Folk Lore Borneo, 27. The people go Tuba fishing, poisoning the stream with the juice of the Tuba root.
2. The fermented sap of the unopened flower-buds of various palms, esp. the coco-nut and Palmyra palms; palm-wine; also, the alcoholic liquor distilled from this; arrack.
1902. W. E. Safford, in Amer. Anthropologist, 728. He climbed a coconut-tree … and brought in a bamboo joint full of tuba, delicious as cider just beginning to turn sharp.
1912. Contemp. Rev., April, 560. Long tumblers of pink tuba.
