chaparral
/ˌʃæp.əˈɹæl/ noun, proper noun
Forms chaparrals
- noun (US) A region of shrubs, typically dry in the summer and rainy in the winter. The coast of the Mediterranean is such a region.
- noun The foliage of creosote bush, Larrea divaricata, when used as a medicinal herb.
- proper noun A neighbourhood in south-east Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
- proper noun A census-designated place in Doña Ana County and Otero County, New Mexico, United States.
- proper noun A town and municipality in Tolima department, Colombia.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Spanish chaparral, from chaparro (“evergreen oak”) + -al, from Basque txaparro, from txapar, from sapar.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A thicket of low evergreen oaks.
- noun An almost impenetrable thicket or succession of thickets of thorny shrubs and brambles. Chaparral cock; fem. Chaparral hen (Zoöl.), a bird of the cuckoo family (Geococcyx Californianus), noted for running with great speed. It ranges from California to Mexico and eastward to Texas; --called also road runner, ground cuckoo, churea, and snake killerit is the state bird of New Mexico.
Etymology [Sp., fr. chaparro an evergeen oak.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chaparral”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details