bamboo

plural bamboos · alternative obsolete bambou · alternative obsolete bambu

1. countableuncountableAny of the fast-growing grasses of the Bambusoideae subfamily, characterized by its woody, hollow, round, straight, jointed stem.

   However, the late Hsia and the Shang were considerably warmer, possibly comparable to Hang-chou today, an area where bamboo proliferates.

   2011, Ralph D. Sawyer, Ancient Chinese Warfare, Basic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 490

2. uncountableWood of the bamboo plant as a material for building, furniture, etc.
3. countableA stick, rod, pole, or cane of bamboo, especially one used as a vessel for liquids, or as a tool for corporal punishment.

   1 more example

   It was evident that Europeans seldom came here, for numbers of women skeltered away as I walked through the village and one girl about ten or twelve years old, who had just brought a bamboo full of water from the river, threw it down with a cry of horror and alarm the moment she caught sight of me, turned around and jumped into the stream.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 102

4. countableslanguncountableA didgeridoo.
5. countableslanguncountableA member of the British military or British East India Company who spent so much time in Indonesia, India, or Malaysia that they never returned home.

alternative obsolete bambou · alternative obsolete bambu

1. not comparableMade of the wood of the bamboo.

present singular third person bamboos · participle present bambooing · participle past bambooed · past bambooed · alternative obsolete bambou · alternative obsolete bambu

1. transitiveTo flog with a bamboo cane.

   […] the beadle is punished by fine, and sometimes bambooed, if robberies are too frequent within his jurisdiction, or if he fails to secure the person of any malefactor particularly wanted by his superior officers.

   1880, Herbert Giles, transl., Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, London: Thomas de la Rue & Co., Vol. II, p. 18, footnote

2. transitiveTo paint (furniture, etc.) to give it the appearance of bamboo.

   The craze for bambooing furniture and accessories was one of many popular paint techniques in the 18th century and early Victorian era.

   1994, Penny Swift, The Complete Book of Paint Techniques, New Holland, page 67

3. IndiaslangTo penetrate sexually.

   One scene of attachment and intimacy shows Vijay careening into their shared apartment dead drunk and insulting a praying Ajay for his devotion to the household god, Hanuman […], saying that instead of being rescued Ajay will be "bamboo-ed," a popular slang for anal penetration.

   2013, Nandini Bhattacharya, chapter 5, in Hindi Cinema: Repeating the Subject, London: Routledge

   1 more example

   If you're just a girl from Lucknow, with no fluid cash, you'll be just one more among thousands going from producer to producer by auto-rickshaw, and every photographer who agrees to take a picture for your portfolio will want to introduce you to his bed upstairs in the loft. And what you'll get out of all this in the end is a lot of bambooing and maybe a dance or two in his videos.

   2006, Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games, Penguin, published 2008