gambiers

Noun

gambier (usually uncountable, plural gambiers)

1. (usually) A flowering plant, of species Uncaria gambir, family Rubiaceae, native to Southeast Asia.
   • When the entire coast-line becomes a sea of waving palms, with Chinese and Malay villages fringing the shores, which are at present mere barren wastes of mangroves, with plantations of pepper, of gambier, and of tapioca and rice, the Northern Territory, backed up by the unswerving energy of the...1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 270
2. (usually) An astringent substance prepared from the leaves of the plant, used in tanning and dyeing.