Mes*qui"te (?), Mes*quit" (?), n. [Sp. mezquite; said to be a Mexican Indian word.] Bot.
A name for two trees of the southwestern part of North America, the honey mesquite, and screw-pod mesquite.
Honey mesquite. See Algaroba (b). -- Screw-pod mesquite, a smaller tree (Prosopis pubescens), having spiral pods used as fodder and sometimes as food by the Indians. -- Mesquite grass, a rich native grass in Western Texas (Bouteloua oligostachya, and other species); -- so called from its growing in company with the mesquite tree; -- called also muskit grass, grama grass.
© Webster 1913.