carob
/ˈkarəb
/noun
1 [mass noun] A brown floury powder extracted from the carob bean, used as a substitute for chocolate.Fortunately the redoubtable Ms. Hillary is not diabetic, as chocolates are high on the prohibited list, as are the so-called ‘diabetic’ chocolates or the chocolate substitute carob....
- Add extras such as carob or malted milk powder to impart a gourmet flavor to your concoctions.
- One brand of homemade ice-cream has chunks of salt and carob instead of proper chocolate.
2 (also carob tree) A small evergreen Arabian tree which bears long brownish-purple edible pods. Also called locust tree.
- Ceratonia siliqua, family Leguminosae.
- And when you taste the final product in the form of a carob cake, you'll have no doubt the humble carob tree has a great future!
- His glaze was equally complex and equally secret, and he took both recipes to his grave when he hung himself from a carob tree in 1786.
2.1 (also carob bean) The edible pod of the carob tree. Also called locust bean.Gem dealers used to balance their scales with carob beans because these beans all have the same weight....
- The carob beans used here come from a row of trees planted in the 1960s by a farmer in the Hawkes Bay.
- Other Cretan agricultural products are carob beans, fava, mountain tea, broad beans, oregano and flax.
Origin
Late Middle English (denoting the carob bean): from Old French carobe, from medieval Latin carrubia, from Arabic ḵarrūba.
carat from Late Middle English:
This measure of the purity of gold and a unit of weight for precious stones comes via French from Italian carato, from Arabi kīrāţ, a unit of weight. The base is Greek keration used for both a carob seed and a unit of weight but literally ‘little horn’ describing the carob's elongated seedpod.