palm oil

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

In the sense of a bribe, the phrase is a punning reference to the palm of the hand and also to oil as lubricant rather than foodstuff.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Noun

palm oil (countable and uncountable, plural palm oils)

  2. An edible plant oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis).
    Hypernyms: vegetable oil < oil
    Hyponym: palm fat
    Coordinate terms: palm kernel oil (not to be confused); olive oil; more
    • 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
      Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.
  4. (slang) Money given as a bribe.
    Synonyms: grease payment, lubrication payment, baksheesh

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