Gua"ia*cum (?), n. [NL., fr. Sp. guayaco, from native name in Hayti.]
1. Bot.
A genus of small, crooked trees, growing in tropical America.
2.
The heart wood or the resin of the Guaiacum offinale or lignum-vitae, a large tree of the West Indies and Central America. It is much used in medicine.
[Written also
guaiac.]
© Webster 1913.