Meanings
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1
noun
a garden plant with large leaves and long, thick, sour-tasting stalks that are cooked with sugar as food
The gardener cut several red rhubarb stalks for a pie.
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2
noun
the edible leafstalks of this plant, treated in cooking like a tart fruit
She stewed the rhubarb with sugar until it was soft.
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3
noun
the dried root of certain Asian Rheum species, formerly used as a laxative medicine
The apothecary kept powdered rhubarb among his imported medicines.
Thesaurus
Etymology
From Middle English rubarbe, through Old French and Medieval Latin rheubarbarum, from Greek rhēon barbaron, literally 'foreign rhubarb.' The plant and medicinal root reached Europe from Asia, and the name was later applied to the familiar garden crop.