Hick"o*ry (?), n. [North American Indian pawcohiccora (Capt. J. Smith) a kind of milk or oily liquor pressed from pounded hickory nuts. "Pohickory" is named in a list of Virginia trees, in 1653, and this was finally shortened to "hickory." J. H. Trumbull.] Bot.
An American tree of the genus Carya, of which there are several species. The shagbark is the C. alba, and has a very rough bark; it affords the hickory nut of the markets. The pignut, or brown hickory, is the C. glabra. The swamp hickory is C. amara, having a nut whose shell is very thin and the kernel bitter.
Hickory shad. Zool. (a) The mattowacca, or fall herring. (b) The gizzard shad.
© Webster 1913.