hickoryn.

3. The nut or fruit of a North American hickory tree. Cf. hickory nut n. 1.

4. Chiefly U.S. A type of hard-wearing cotton twill, typically having a narrow blue stripe and used to make shirts for manual work; = hickory cloth n. at Compounds 2. Cf. hickory shirt n. at Compounds 2. Now historical.

a. General attributive, with the sense ‘of, relating to, or consisting of the hickory or its wood’.

b. U.S. attributive. Designating a person who is lax or flexible in the practice of a religion.

hickory acacia n. now rare an acacia native to southeastern Australia, Acacia leprosa; cf. sense 1b.

hickory cloth n. U.S. (now historical) a hard-wearing cotton twill, typically having a narrow blue stripe and used to make shirts for manual work.

hickory elm n. U.S. the rock elm, Ulmus thomasii, which has hard, strong wood.

† hickory eucalyptus n. Obsolete rare a grey gum found in eastern Australia, Eucalyptus punctata, which has wood similar in quality to that of the North American hickory; cf. sense 1b.

hickory girdler n. (also hickory twig girdler) now rare the twig girdler, Oncideres cingulata.The hickory girdler damages many species of hardwood tree, including hickory, pecan, and persimmon.

hickory horned devil adj. the caterpillar of the regal moth, Citheronia regalis, which is green with hard, spiky, brown and black horns on the thoracic segments and feeds on the leaves of hickory and some other trees.

hickory jack n. (a) the fall herring, Alosa mediocris (cf. hickory shad n.); †(b) any of several carangoid fishes; esp. the blue runner, Caranx crysos (cf. Jack n.² 35c) (obsolete rare). [The reason for the name is unclear. Compare hickory shad n.]

hickory milk n. U.S. a milky liquid prepared from hickory nuts, used as a drink and in cooking.

hickory oil n. (a) oil extracted from the nuts of a North American hickory tree and used traditionally by North American Indians as a source of food (now chiefly historical); (b) U.S. figurative corporal punishment using a hickory switch or similar instrument, viewed as a treatment for bad behaviour (now rare); cf. sense 2c and oil n.¹ Compounds 2c. During the first half of the nineteenth cent., the phrase was also used to refer to the administration of U.S. President Andrew Jackson, nicknamed Old Hickory (see Old Hickory n. at old adj. Compounds 4), which may have influenced the development of sense (b).

hickory pine n. either of two American pines with relatively hard or tough wood, the bristlecone pine, Pinus aristata, of the western United States, and the Table Mountain pine, P. pungens, of the eastern United States. [Probably so called because of some traits (such as the wood or bark) resembling those of the hickory tree.]

hickory shad n. U.S. any of several herrings found in American waters; spec. the gizzard shad, Dorosoma cepedianum, and the fall herring, Alosa mediocris; cf. hickory jack n. (a). [The reason for the name is unclear.]

hickory shirt n. U.S. a shirt made of a hard-wearing cotton twill, typically having a narrow blue stripe and used for manual work.

hickory-smoked adj. originally and chiefly U.S. designating or relating to food (esp. meat) preserved or flavoured by exposure to the smoke of burning hickory wood (or flavoured as if by this method), particularly associated with barbecues in the Southern states of the United States; also figurative having a style, appearance, or character typical of rural life in the United States, esp. the Southern states.

hickory stick n. a stick or cane made of hickory (or sometimes another wood).

hickory switch n. a switch or whip made of hickory (or sometimes another wood).

hickory tea n. U.S. figurative = hickory oil n. (b).

hickory tree n. = sense 1.

hickory wood n. = sense 2a.