Manna /(măn"nȧ)/

Man·na

Manna

n.
  1. The food supplied to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia; hence, divinely supplied food. (Script.)
  2. A name given to lichens of the genus Lecanora, sometimes blown into heaps in the deserts of Arabia and Africa, and gathered and used as food; called also manna lichen. (Bot.)
  3. A sweetish exudation in the form of pale yellow friable flakes, coming from several trees and shrubs and used in medicine as a gentle laxative, as the secretion of Fraxinus Ornus, and Fraxinus rotundifolia, the manna ashes of Southern Europe. (Bot. & Med.)

Phrases & Compounds

Manna insect
a scale insect (Gossyparia mannipara), which causes the exudation of manna from the Tamarix tree in Arabia.