Definition of "kelp" []

• Any of various brown, often very large seaweeds of the order Laminariales. (noun)
• The ash of these seaweeds, used as a source of potash and iodine. (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.

• "The weed thus drawn to shore was subsequently sorted, the greater part being used for manure, while the rest was burned in one of those rough kilns that abound along the coast, and reduced to kelp, which is used in the manufacture of soap and glass, and from which iodine is extracted."
• "Tregarthen could recall the kelp-making, but neither the circumstances of the collapse nor the sufferings that followed it."
• "There is a farm on a neck of land belonging to this town (Marblehead, Mass.), which has peculiar advantages for collecting sea kelp and sea moss, and these manures are there used most liberally, particularly in the cultivation of cabbage, from eight to twelve cords of rotten kelp, which is stronger than barn manure, and more suitable food for cabbage, being used to the acre."