Definition of "chinquapin" []

• Any of several deciduous shrubs or small trees related and similar to the chestnut, especially Castanea pumila, native to the eastern United States. (noun)
• A large evergreen tree (Castanopsis chrysophylla) of the Pacific Coast of North America. Also called giant chinquapin, golden chinquapin. (noun)
• The nut of any of these plants. (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.

• "Around Washington the chinquapin is a weed tree, and if you gather a peck of chinquapins you will find that the whole peck, in two weeks, have turned to weevils."
• "Japanese chestnuts are the poorest of all in quality but he has taken the chinquapin, which is of high quality but the very smallest of the whole chestnut family, quite common in many of the central and southern states and as far west as Arkansas, has crossed the Japanese chestnut and the chinquapin, and has obtained seedlings that bear very young -- when they are not more than four or five feet high sometimes."
• "I have found this to be the experience of others who have observed so-called chinquapin trees of a hybrid nature."