1.
[syn: calabar bean, ordeal bean]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Calabar \Cal"a*bar\, n.
A district on the west coast of Africa.
[1913 Webster]
Calabar bean, The of a climbing legumious plant
(Physostigma venenosum), a native of tropical Africa. It
is highly poisonous. It is used to produce contraction of
the pupil of the eye; also in tetanus, neuralgia, and
rheumatic diseases; -- called also ordeal bean, being
used by the negroes in trials for witchcraft.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
calabar bean
n 1: dark brown highly poisonous seed of the calabar-bean vine;
source of physostigmine and used in native witchcraft [syn:
calabar bean, ordeal bean]