ˈpartridge-wood
1. A hard red wood, much prized for cabinet work, also used for walking and umbrella sticks, obtained from the W. Indies, having darker parallel stripes, once thought to be the wood of the partridge-pea, Heisteria coccinea, now supposed to be (at least in part) obtained from the leguminous tree Andira inermis; called also pheasant-wood.
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 78 The wood of Heisteria coccinea is the Partridge wood of the cabinet-makers. c 1865 J. Wylde in Circ. Sc. I. 172/2 [Descr. of a machine] These tubes are terminated by circular knobs, which enclose jets of partridge-wood, shaped of a cylindrical form, and having a jet somewhat resembling a bats-wing gas-burner. 1898 Morris Austral Eng., Partridge-wood, another name for the Cabbage-Palm. |
2. A name for the appearance of wood when attacked by the saprophytic fungus Stereum frustulosum, on account of its speckled colour.
| 1894 Somerville & Ward tr. Hartig's Dis. Trees 203 Thelephora Perdix. A form of disease which is very common in the oak throughout the whole of Germany is known as ‘partridge wood’, on account of the peculiar discoloration which it induces in the wood. 1899 G. Massee Text-bk. of Plant Diseases 172. |