rhubarb

noun

• 1the thick reddish or green leaf stalks of a cultivated plant of the dock family, which are eaten as a fruit after cooking: [as modifier]:rhubarb pie

• 2the large-leaved Eurasian plant which produces rhubarb.

  • Rheum rhaponticum (or rhabarbarum), family Polygonaceae
• used in names of other plants of the same genus as rhubarb, several of which are used medicinally, e.g. Chinese rhubarb.

• 3British informal the noise made by a group of actors to give the impression of indistinct background conversation, especially by the random repetition of the word ‘rhubarb’.
• nonsense:it was all rhubarb, about me, about her daughter, about art

• 4 [count noun] North American informal a heated dispute: rhubarbs often broke out among these less than professional players