Definition of "tuckahoe"

tuckahoe

/ˈtʌkəhəʊ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural tuckahoes
1. Any edible root of a plant of species Peltandra virginica, used by Native Americans of colonial-era Virginia.
  Quotations
  In June, July, and August, they feed upon the rootes of Tockwough berries, fish, and greene wheat.
  1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 142
  The ponderous beast had spent the summer eating tuckahoe roots, the autumn eating acorns and nuts, and was now as heavy as two stout men.
  1996, Karen Mueller Coombs, Sarah on Her Own
2. (uncommon, US, Virginia dialect, largely obsolete) A person, especially if poor and malnourished (or if implied to be), living east of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.
  Quotations
  […] at least until you either get poor Tuckahoe out of his present hobble, in furnishing so many strong suspicions against the sincerity of his former professions of patriotism, […]
  1828 February 8, "Tusgarora" (pen name), in a letter to the editor of The American Farmer, page 372
  The poor Tuckahoe, however, when he purchased land in Washington County, or the Shenandoah, or in Rowan, seems to have left behind him, not only his worn-out fields and his tumbledown house, but his wasteful methods.
  1963, Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, The Old South: the founding of American civilization, page 213
3. The sclerotium of wood-decay fungi of species Wolfiporia extensa, used by Native Americans and the Chinese as food and as a herbal medicine.
4. The flowering plant Orontium aquaticum.