Also 5 bombax. [L. bombyx (in med.L. bombax), a. Gr. βόμβυξ the silk-worm, silk.]
1. The silk-worm.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xviii. (1495), 777. The Bombax fyrste cometh forth as a worme … that gnawyth caul leuys and vyne leuys … and weuyth webbes as spynners doo.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Bombyx is … a name given to the silk-worm.
1837–40. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 47.
† 2. Raw silk. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. xciii. (1495), 524. In Mauritanea growen wonder hie trees … as it were wyth heere or wyth wulle . and therof ben clothes made by crafte: as it were bombax.
3. Ent. A genus of moths, of which the most important is the Silk-worm moth (Bombyx mori). Sometimes any moth of the sub-order Bombycina.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 710. The genus Bombyx is one of great interest and importance.
1857. J. Greene, Pupa Digging, 21. The collector in want of any particular tree-feeding Bombyx or Noctua.
† 4. (See quot.) Obs.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 930. The Bombyx … is a creature resembling the Wasp, of a black hue, having a sting like as the Wasp hath.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v.
