bambu

Noun

bamboo (countable and uncountable, plural bamboos)

1. Any of the fast-growing grasses of the Bambusoideae subfamily, characterized by its woody, hollow, round, straight, jointed stem.
   • However, the late Hsia and the Shang were considerably warmer, possibly comparable to Hang-chou today, an area where bamboo proliferates.2011, Ralph D. Sawyer, Ancient Chinese Warfare, Basic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 490
2. (uncountable) Wood of the bamboo plant as a material for building, furniture, etc.
3. (countable) A stick, rod, pole, or cane of bamboo, especially one used as a vessel for liquids, or as a tool for corporal punishment.
   • It was evident that Europeans seldom came here, for numbers of women skeltered away as I walked through the village and one girl about ten or twelve years old, who had just brought a bamboo full of water from the river, threw it down with a cry of horror and alarm the moment she caught sight of me...1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 102
4. (slang) A didgeridoo.
5. (slang) A member of the British military or British East India Company who spent so much time in Indonesia, India, or Malaysia that they never returned home.

See all 9 meanings of bamboo