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teak

UK/tiːk/US/tiːk/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,383 of 15,258leans written

Teak is a hard durable timber from a tropical tree. A teak bench, solid teak, teak decking.

Its own oil makes it resist water, rot and insects with no treatment at all, which is why it was the timber for ships' decks and is still used for garden furniture. Untreated it weathers to a silver grey. Old-growth teak is now largely protected.

Forest & Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0

Definitions of teak

  1. 1nounteakA hard durable timber from a tropical tree.C1

    “The deck of the old sailing ship was made of teak.”

teak is a timber.

Where it comes from

Portuguese teca comes from the Malayalam and Tamil name for the tree.

  1. Tamil

    தேக்கு

  2. Malayalam

    തേക്ക്

  3. Portuguese

    teca

  4. English, today

    teak

Portuguese teca, from Malayalam തേക്ക് / Tamil தேக்கு.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

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teak in the wild

  • Myanmar's teak forests account for nearly half of the world's naturally occurring teak.

    Teak

  • Molecular studies show that there are two centres of the genetic origin of teak: one in India and the other in Myanmar and Laos.

    Teak

  • Dipteryx odorata (commonly known as "cumaru", "kumaru", or "Brazilian teak") is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae.

    Dipteryx odorata

  • Teak occurs naturally in India with the main teak forests found in Kerala.

    Teak Museum

  • The museum, a two-storey building, is the world's first teak museum and is operated by the Kerala Forest Research Institute.

    Teak Museum

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.