thuja Meaning, Definition & Usage

Thu"ja noun

Etymology

NL., from Gr. an African tree with sweet-smelling wood.

Definitions

1. (Bot.) A genus of evergreen trees, thickly branched, remarkable for the distichous arrangement of their branches, and having scalelike, closely imbricated, or compressed leaves. Written also thuya. See Thyine wood. ✍ Thuja occidentalis is the Arbor vitæ of the Eastern and Northern United States. T. gigantea of North-waetern America is a very large tree, there called red cedar, and canoe cedar, and furnishes a useful timber.