Bot. [L. Agāve prop. name in mythology, ad. Gr. Άγαυή, properly adj. fem. of ἀγαυός illustrious, highborn, adopted as a generic name by mod. botanists.] A genus of plants (N.O. Amaryllidaceæ), of which the chief species is the American Aloe, whose stately flower-stem (sometimes forty feet high) is produced only when the plant arrives at maturity, at the age of from ten to seventy years.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 257. The wild Agave of Mexico yields a copious juice when tapped, which is fermented into a wine called Pulque.
1842. Tennyson, Daisy, xxi. The moonlight touching o’er a terrace One tall Agavè above the lake.
