‖ Agave Bot.
(əˈgeɪviː)
[L. Agāve prop. name in mythology, ad. Gr. ἀγαυή, properly adj. fem. of ἀγαυός illustrious, highborn, adopted as a generic name by mod. botanists.]
A genus of plants (family Amaryllidaceæ), of which the chief species is the American Aloe, whose stately flower-stem (sometimes forty feet high) is produced only when the plant arrives at maturity, at the age of from ten to seventy years.
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 257 The wild Agave of Mexico yields a copious juice when tapped, which is fermented into a wine. 1842 Tennyson Daisy xxi, The moonlight touching o'er a terrace One tall Agavè above the lake. |