دفل

دِفْلٌ: see the following paragraph.

A2: Also i. q. قَطِرَانٌ and زِفْتٌ [both app. here meaning Tar, or liquid pitch]: (K:) or such as is thick: mentioned in this art. by IF, and also as written with ذ. (TA.) دِفْلَى, (T, S, M, K, &c.,) accord. to those who make the alif to be a sign of the fem. gender; and دِفْلًى, accord. to those who make that letter to be one of quasi-coordination; used alike as a sing. and a pl.; (S;) and ↓ دِفْلٌ; (Ibn-'Abbád, K;) [the first of these appellations applied in the present day to The rose-bay, or laurel-bay; oleander, nerium oleander, rhododendron, or rhododaphne: and also to the common laurel:] a certain tree, (T, M,) or plant, (S, K,) bitter, (T, S, M, K,) very bitter, (TA,) and poisonous, (T,) green, and beautiful in appearance, the blossom of which is beautifully tinged, (M,) called in Persian خَرْزَهْرَهْ: (K:) there is a river-kind, and a land-kind: the leaves are like those of the حَمْقَآء [or gardenpurslane], but more slender; and the branches, or twigs, are long, spreading over the ground; at the leaves are thorns; and it grows in waste places: the river-kind grows upon the banks of rivers; its thorns are unconspicuous, or unapparent; its leaves are like those of the خِلَاف [or salix Aegyptia] and of the almond, broad; and the upper part of its stem is thicker than the lower part thereof: (TA:) it is very deadly: its blossom is like the red rose, (K,) very rough (خشن جدّا [but this I think is a mistranscription for حَسَنٌ جِدًّا very beautiful], and upon it is a kind of tuft like hair: (TA:) its fruit is like the خُرْنُوب [q. v.]; (K;) having an aperient, or a deobstruent, property; and stuffed with a substance like wool: (TA:) it is good for the mange, or scab, and the itch (حِكَّة), used in the manner of a liniment, (K,) and especially the expressed juice of its leaves; (TA;) and for pain of the knee and the back, (K,) of long duration, (TA,) applied in the manner of a poultice, or plaster; and for expelling fleas and the [insect called] أَرَض, by the sprinkling of a decoction thereof; and the rubbing over with the heart thereof twelve times, after cleansing, is good for removing the [malignant leprosy termed] بَرَص; (K;) and its leaves put upon hard tumours are very beneficial: but it is a poison: [yet] sometimes it is mixed with wine and rue, and given to be drunk, and saves from the poisons of venomous reptiles: the Ra-ees [Ibn-Seenà, or Avicenna,] says that it is perilous by itself, and its blossom, to men, and to horses and the like, and to dogs, but is beneficial when made into a decoction with rue, and drunk: (TA:) IAar says that the [trees termed] آء and أَلَآء and حبر [app. a mistranscription for خَبْر, a species of lote-tree,] are all called دِفْلَى. (T.) AHn says that the زَنْد made from the دِفْلَى is excellent for producing fire: and hence the prov., اِقْدَحْ بِدِفْلَى فِى مَرْخِ ثُمَّ شُدَّ بَعْدُ أَوْ أَرْخِ [Endeavour thou to produce fire with wood of the دفلى upon wood of the مرخ: then tighten afterwards or loosen]: (M:) said when one incites a bad man against another bad man: (M, Meyd:) or, accord. to IAar, said in relation to a man whom one needs not to press, or importune. (Meyd.)