1. Plants having long green or reddish acidic leafstalks growing in basal clumps; stems (and only the stems) are edible when cooked; leaves are poisonous
   "We harvested the rhubarb plant's stems to make a delicious pie";
   - rhubarb plant
    
2. Long pinkish sour leafstalks usually eaten cooked and sweetened
   "She used pieplant to make a tangy rhubarb pie";
   - pieplant [N. Amer]
    
3. Long cultivated hybrid of Rheum palmatum; stems often cooked in pies or as sauce or preserves
   "She made a strawberry rhubarb pie from the pie plant in her garden";
   - pie plant [N. Amer], garden rhubarb, Rheum cultorum, Rheum rhabarbarum, Rheum rhaponticum
    
4. [Brit, informal] Statements or beliefs that are untrue or make no sense
   "He dismissed the conspiracy theory as pure rhubarb";
   - bunk [informal], bunkum [informal], buncombe [informal], guff [informal], rot [informal], hogwash [informal], flapdoodle [N. Amer, informal], Irish bull [slang], bilge [informal], junk [informal], bull [slang], nonsense, jive [N. Amer, informal], bushwah [N. Amer, informal], bushwa [N. Amer, informal], folderol, rubbish [informal], tripe [informal], trumpery [archaic], trash [informal], wish-wash [informal], applesauce [N. Amer, informal], codswallop [Brit, informal], falderal, drivel, garbage

Derived forms: rhubarbs

Type of: content, herb, herbaceous plant, message, subject matter, substance, veg [Brit, informal], vegetable, veggie [informal]

Part of: genus Rheum, Rheum

Encyclopedia: Rhubarb