rhubarb

Everyday

1. A garden plant with long thick pink or red stalks that are cooked with sugar and eaten as a sweet food, as in rhubarb crumble. tree →
2. (UK, informal) Nonsense or silly talk. tree →
3. (theatre, UK) The word actors mutter, "rhubarb, rhubarb", to sound like a crowd talking in the background. tree →
4. (US, old slang) A noisy argument or fight, especially in baseball. tree →

In the lessons

In cooking and gardening lessons rhubarb is a classic British and Irish pudding plant (rhubarb crumble, rhubarb and custard). In science and safety lessons it is a warning: the stalks are eaten but the big leaves are poisonous. In drama lessons extras say "rhubarb rhubarb" to make crowd noise.

Examples

• Grandad grows rhubarb in his garden. tree →
• We had rhubarb crumble with custard for pudding. tree →
• Rhubarb is very sour, so you cook it with sugar. tree →
• Never eat rhubarb leaves; they are poisonous. tree →
• In the school play, the crowd muttered "rhubarb, rhubarb". tree →
• "That's a load of rhubarb!" said Nan, meaning nonsense. tree →
• Rhubarb and custard sweets are pink and yellow. tree →
• She believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. tree →

Note

Pronounced ROO-barb; the "h" is silent. As food it is uncountable (some rhubarb). Rhubarb is a vegetable, though it is cooked like a fruit. Safety: only the stalks are eaten; the leaves contain poison (oxalic acid).