Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Manna?

\Man"na\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ?, Heb. m[=a]n; cf. Ar. mann, properly, gift (of heaven).] 1. (Script.) The food supplied to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia; hence, divinely supplied food. --Ex. xvi. 15. 2. (Bot.) A name given to lichens of the genus {Lecanora}, sometimes blown into heaps in the deserts of Arabia and Africa, and gathered and used as food. 3. (Bot. & Med.) A sweetish exudation in the form of pale yellow friable flakes, coming from several trees and shrubs and used in medicine as a gentle laxative, as the secretion of {Fraxinus Ornus}, and {F. rotundifolia}, the manna ashes of Southern Europe. Note: {Persian manna} is the secretion of the camel's thorn (see {Camel's thorn}, under {Camel}); {Tamarisk manna}, that of the {Tamarisk mannifera}, a shrub of Western Asia; {Australian, manna}, that of certain species of eucalyptus; {Brian[,c]on manna}, that of the European larch. {Manna grass} (Bot.), a name of several tall slender grasses of the genus {Glyceria}. they have long loose panicles, and grow in moist places. {Nerved manna grass} is {Glyceria nervata}, and {Floating manna grass} is {G. flu}. {Manna insect} (Zo["o]l), a scale insect ({Gossyparia mannipara}), which causes the exudation of manna from the Tamarisk tree in Arabia.