Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several brittle aromatic yellow to red resins of recent or fossil origin, obtained from various tropical trees and used in certain varnishes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hard, transparent, amber-like resin, the product of many different tropical trees, melting at a high temperature, and used in the manufacture of varnishes.

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

  • A resinous substance flowing spontaneously from trees of Zanzibar, Madagascar, and South America (Trachylobium Hornemannianum, Trachylobium verrucosum, and Hymenæa Courbaril), and dug from earth where forests have stood in Africa; -- used chiefly in making varnishes.

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

  • noun A resinous exudation from various tropical trees used chiefly in making varnishes and printing ink.

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

  • noun a brittle aromatic resin used in varnishes

Etymologies

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

[Spanish, from Nahuatl copalli, resin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Spanish copal, from Classical Nahuatl copalli ("incense").

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Examples

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  • Precursor to copium?

    February 5, 2024