Upas
Definitions
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three unhappy men under upas tree -
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
- Upas (Bot) A tree (Antiaris toxicaria) of the Breadfruit family, common in the forests of Java and the neighboring islands. Its secretions are poisonous, and it has been fabulously reported that the atmosphere about it is deleterious. Called also bohun upas.
- Upas A virulent poison used in Java and the adjacent islands for poisoning arrows. One kind, upas antiar, is derived from the upas tree (Antiaris toxicaria). Upas tieute is prepared from a climbing plant (Strychnos Tieute).
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Additional illustrations & photos:
three happy men under upas tree
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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- n upas The poisonous sap of different trees of the Malayan and Philippine Islands, more or less used for arrow-poison. The upas-antiar is yielded by the antiar or upas-tree. (See def. 2 and antiar.) The upas tieuté, or upas radja, is from the chettik or tjettek, Strychnos Tieuté, one of the strychnine-trees.
- n upas The tree Antiaris toxicaria, one of the largest Javanese trees, having a cylindrical stem 60 or 70 feet high below the branches. Upon incision a poisonous milky juice flows from the trunk, concreting into a gum, which is mixed with the seed of Capsicum frutescens and various aromatic substances to form one kind of arrow-poison. The action of the poison is first purgative and emetic, then narcotic, destroying life by tetanic convulsions. Fable invests this tree with a deadly influence upon whatever comes under its branches. It is true that when the tree is felled or the bark extensively wounded it exhales an effluvium producing cutaneous eruptions; otherwise the upas may be approached and ascended like other trees. See Antiaris and sack-tree.
- n upas Figuratively, something baneful or pernicious from a moral point of view: as, the upas of drunkenness.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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- n Upas ū′pas the juice of the Antjar or Anchar tree of the Philippine Islands, a powerful vegetable poison.
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Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Malay pūhn-ūpas,; pūhn, a tree + ūpas, poison
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Malay, ūpas, poison.
Usage
In literature:
Years ago travellers used to tell marvellous stories about a certain poison valley of Java in the centre of which stood an upas-tree.
"Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania" by Jewett Castello Gilson
Here, then, in the South are slavery and rebellion, branches of that Upas tree, whose seeds were planted in our soil by England.
"The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862" by Various
No wonder this Upas tree flourished by the river of crime on whose banks it was fed.
"Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations" by William Howe
I knew I should die under the upas tree of his hateful presence!
"Her Mother's Secret" by Emma D. E. N. Southworth
This was the only specimen of the upas tree that I saw in Borneo.
"Borneo and the Indian Archipelago" by Frank S. Marryat
Before quitting Java, I must say a word about the far-famed upas-tree.
"Trade and Travel in the Far East" by G. F. Davidson
The visitor moves swiftly into the sunlight when told that he is standing in the shade of the deadly upas.
"East of Suez" by Frederic Courtland Penfield
The darts used are about five inches long, and are dipped in upas juice.
"On the Equator" by Harry de Windt
And then he buried the three covetous ones in separate graves under the upas itself.
"A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2" by George Saintsbury
If he had lived beyond the reach of the influence of this Upas tree he might have been a true and noble man.
"Watch and Wait" by Oliver Optic
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In poetry:
Deep in the desert's misery,
far in the fury of the sand,
there stands the awesome Upas Tree
lone watchman of a lifeless land.
far in the fury of the sand,
there stands the awesome Upas Tree
lone watchman of a lifeless land.
"The Upas Tree" by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin
Far shore, far shore, on thee
Are the flowers in endless bloom?
Or there may the desert be,
With the deadly Upas tree,
Where the seeker but finds a tomb?
Are the flowers in endless bloom?
Or there may the desert be,
With the deadly Upas tree,
Where the seeker but finds a tomb?
"Yearning" by Samuel Lover
One said: "I have seen, from cliffs of doom,
The seven hells flame up in flower
Like a million upas trees that tower,
Massing their realms of poisonous bloom.
The seven hells flame up in flower
Like a million upas trees that tower,
Massing their realms of poisonous bloom.
"Dialogue" by Clark Ashton Smith
I knew thy creed, although thy lips were mute;
I knew the gods thou didst not dare to own;
I knew the Upas poison at the root
Of thy last flower of song, in prison blown.
I knew the gods thou didst not dare to own;
I knew the Upas poison at the root
Of thy last flower of song, in prison blown.
"To C. 33" by Charles Hamilton Musgrove
No sting of pain can e'er atone,
No purging fire was ever known
For cleansing of a heart defiled
By falsehood; though it may be styled
In diction, affability,
It poisons like the upas tree.
No purging fire was ever known
For cleansing of a heart defiled
By falsehood; though it may be styled
In diction, affability,
It poisons like the upas tree.
"Lies" by Jared Barhite
That in thy breast there springs a poison fountain,
Deadlier than that where bathes the Upas tree;
And in thy wrath, a nursing cat-o'-mountain
Is calm as her babe's sleep, compared with thee!
Deadlier than that where bathes the Upas tree;
And in thy wrath, a nursing cat-o'-mountain
Is calm as her babe's sleep, compared with thee!
"Red Jacket" by Fitz-Greene Halleck
In news:
Apparently, you don't have to have a huge budget to get something very nice—something like the Emotiva UPA-500 5-channel power amp .
The San Diego Planning Commission voted on August 23 to deny the demolition and reconstruction of the Jack in the Box at 2959 Upas Street in North Park.
LACMA's animation screenings have been unusually strong this year, including a sold-out UPA show in March and an upcoming Paramount show on Thursday.
Mrs Rose Culbert, Chairman of the UPA Radio Committee with a discussion on Radio for Children.
Meyer Sound has given the venerable UPA-1P compact wide coverage and UPA-2P compact narrow coverage loudspeakers a facelift by replacing the original grille design with a robust new steel grille frame.
Sometime after 4 am on August 15, neighbors were awakened by loud voices outside a house on Upas Street that had hosted a party the night before.
PM invites BJP leaders for dinner Apprehensive of a stormy Parliament session, the government reached out to the opposition and for the first time before a sitting in the UPA regime, Prime Minister Manmohan Times Now - 1 day ago India.
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In science:
Using UBVRI photometry, size, and morphological information, we developed an efficient algorithm for selecting likely GCs candidates for spectroscopic follow-up—a necessity given the large number of foreground stars.
The Globular Cluster System of NGC 5128 I. Survey and Catalogs
Usability Professionals' Association. UPA 2007 Salary Survey. Bloomingdale, IL: Usability Professionals' Association; 2008.
Usability testing: a review of some methodological and technical aspects of the method
B is the initial bound state of the nucleus of interest A, χ(+) pA describes the relative motion of the proton and the target in the initial channel distorted by an optical potential UpA , and Ψ(−) is the exact three-body wave function.
Improved description of $^{34,36,46}$Ar(p,d) transfer reactions
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