Definition of "manioc"
manioc
noun
usually uncountable, plural maniocs
(countable, uncountable) The tropical plant Manihot esculenta, from which cassava and tapioca are prepared.
Quotations
The banana, the most important crop above ground, quarreled with the manioc, the most important underground crop. […] The manioc said that it, the yam, the sweet potato, and others were the ones that fed people and that without them people could not exist.
1975, William R. Bascom, African Dilemma Tales, Mouton (De Gruyter), page 86
The selection process leading to the bitter group of maniocs has been in terms of higher starch yield and in terms of starch of a quality more appropriate for making bread ans flour.
1977, Donald W. Lathrap, Our Father the Cayman, Our Mother the Gourd, Charles A. Reed (editor), Origins of Agriculture, Mouton (De Gruyter), page 741
Manioc, the main subsistence crop of Amazonia, is planted entirely from cuttings, which are inserted into mounds hoed up in the spaces left between the logs and the stumps.
1988, Robert L. Carneiro, “5: Indians of the Amazonian Rainforest”, in Julie Sloan Denslow, Christine Padoch, editors, People of the Tropical Rain Forest, University of California Press, page 82