red cedar

Noun

red cedar (countable and uncountable, plural red cedars)

1. A juniper of species (Juniperus virginiana) native to North America and highly prized for its fragrant wood.
   • Below, the red cedar festoon'd with tylandria, the pines and cypresses growing out of the white sand that spreads far and flat, […]1892, Walt Whitman, "Our Old Feuillage" in Leaves of Grass (abridged reprint of the 1892 edition), Modern Library, 1921, p. 147, https://archive.org/details/leavesofgrass00whit
2. An arborvitae (Thuja plicata), found in North America.
   • She was a West Coast canoe—dug out of a great red cedar tree.1941, Emily Carr, chapter 11, in Klee Wyck

   Synonyms:

   western red cedar, giant arborvitae

3. A tree of species Toona sureni, of eastern Asia.
4. An evergreen tree of the mahogany family with reddish wood, found in Australia (Toona australis).

   Synonyms:

   Australian red cedar

5. A tree of species Trichilia hirta, found from Mexico to Paraguay.
6. Wood of any of these trees.