bast

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The phloem of a plant.
• noun Bast fiber.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Bastardy.
• Bastard; illegitimate.
• noun A name sometimes given to the portion of raw-silk fiber which envelops the fibroin: virtually the same as the sericin.
• noun A trade-name of the piassava-fiber. See bast-palm, piassava, and bass, 4.
• noun The strong inner fibrous bark of various trees, especially of species of linden (Tilia), of which the Russia matting of commerce is made.
• noun In botany, a tissue, otherwise called the liber or phloëm, formed of or containing very narrow, long, and tough flexible cells, called bast-cells or bast-fibers, and occurring most abundantly in the inner bark of dicotyledons.
• noun A rope or cord made of the inner bark of the lime-tree, or the bark made into ropes or mats. See bass, 3.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The inner fibrous bark of various plants; esp. of the lime tree; hence, matting, cordage, etc., made therefrom.
• noun A thick mat or hassock. See 2d Bass, 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Fibre made from the phloem of certain plants and used for matting and cord.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun cat- or lion-headed Egyptian goddess; represents life-giving power of the sun
• noun (botany) tissue that conducts synthesized food substances (e.g., from leaves) to parts where needed; consists primarily of sieve tubes
• noun strong woody fibers obtained especially from the phloem of from various plants