Definition of "upas" []

• A deciduous tree (Antiaris toxicaria) of tropical Africa and Asia that yields a latex used as an arrow poison. (noun)
• The poison obtained from this tree or from similar trees. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "(presented to the Royal Society), upon the effects of similar experiments made with what he terms the upas antiar."
• "The former he states to be a decoction or extract from the bark of the roots of a climbing plant of the genus strychnos, called tieute by the natives of Java; and the latter to be a milky, bitter, and yellowish juice, running from an incision in the bark of a large tree (new genus) called antiar; the word upas meaning, as M. Leschenault understands, vegetable poison of any kind."
• "The word 'upas,' in the language of the natives, means poison, and there is in the island a valley called the upas, or poison, valley."