hickory

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

• noun Any of several chiefly North American deciduous trees of the genus Carya, having smooth or shaggy bark, pinnately compound leaves, and hard smooth nuts, each containing an edible seed and surrounded by a husk that splits into four valves.
• noun The tough, heavy wood of one of these trees.
• noun A walking stick or switch made from such wood.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A North American tree belonging to the genus Carya, of the natural order Juglandeœ.
• noun The wood of this tree.
• noun In Australia, a name applied to several trees the wood of which is used for the same purposes as that of the American hickories, especially the hickory-acacia, Acacia leprosa, the blackwood of Australia, Acacia Melanoxylon, and the hickory-eucalyptus, Eucalyptus punctata.
• noun In Tasmania, a shrub or small tree of the rue family, Phebalium squameum, conspicuous for its strong smell, silvery under-surface of the leaves, and small pink-and-white flowers.
• noun Same as white-heart hickory.
• noun Same as pignut, 2.
• noun Same as bitternut.
• noun The shellbark, Hicoria ovata.

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

• noun (Bot.) An American tree of the genus Carya, of which there are several species. The shagbark is the Carya alba, and has a very rough bark; it affords the hickory nut of the markets. The pignut, or brown hickory, is the Carya glabra. The swamp hickory is Carya amara, having a nut whose shell is very thin and the kernel bitter.
• noun (Zoöl.) The gizzard shad.

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

• adjective Of or pertaining to the hickory tree or its wood.
• noun Any of various deciduous hardwood trees of the genus Carya or Annamocarya.
• noun uncountable The wood of these trees.

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

• noun valuable tough heavy hardwood from various hickory trees
• noun American hardwood tree bearing edible nuts