rambutan

Definition

A tree of species Nephelium lappaceum, of Southeast Asia.

Etymology

Borrowed from Malay rambutan, English usage first attested 1707.

Example Sentences

• "The Mangosteen, Lansat, Rambutan, Jack, Jambou, and Blimbing, are all abundant; but most abundant and most esteemed is the Durian, a fruit about which very little is known in England, but which both by natives and Europeans in the Malay Archipelago is reckoned superior to all others."
• "Old women crouched over bags of Siamese rice, skeps of red and green peppers, purple egg-plants, bristly rambutans, pineapples, durians."