Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various climbing, woody, usually tropical vines.

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

  • noun A climbing woody vine, usually tropical.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of French liane, probably from lier, to bind, from Old French; see liable.]

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Examples

  • We think that elevated CO2 may also favor liana proliferation, especially under a slightly drier scenario, a drier climate.

    Vines Choking Americas' Forests 2011

  • We think tropical forests in the Americans are drying out a little bit, which would favor liana proliferation.

    Vines Choking Americas' Forests 2011

  • He leaned out further over the abyss, tightening his grip on the seemingly unbreakable liana nearby.

    Shopgirls Frederick Barthelme 2010

  • Or to swing my legs like Tarzan on a liana around my partner's waist?

    Wishing For Limber Limbs Patrizia Chen 2010

  • Below-he gripped the liana ever tighter-below and down an equally great distance, somewhere at the Fifth Level, lay a brilliant blue object that caught the sun like the axe.

    Shopgirls Frederick Barthelme 2010

  • They had to be eighty feet high and thirty feet across, all draped in those liana vines.

    Kresley Cole Immortals After Dark: The Clan MacRieve Kresley Cole 2010

  • Write to Liana B. B.ker at liana. balinsky-baker@dowjones.com

    A Synagogue's Unorthodox Revival Liana B. Baker 2010

  • These liana forests occupy thousands of square kilometers on the high relief in the south and southeast portion of the region.

    Tapajós-Xingu moist forests 2008

  • Or to swing my legs like Tarzan on a liana around my partner's waist?

    Patrizia Chen: Wishing For Limber Limbs 2010

  • Prominent tree species include Lecythis odora, Lecythis turbinata, brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa, rare in this area), Cenostigma tocantina, Bombax tocantinum, and the large liana Bauhinia bombaciflora.

    Tocantins-Araguaia-Maranhão moist forests 2008

Comments

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  • "'...when we were both felled to the ground by what at first I took to be a heavy branch or rather liana; yet the liana writhed with great force and I quickly perceived that it was in fact an enormous serpent that had fallen from a tree...'"

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Far Side of the World, 190–191

    February 21, 2008