WITCH HAZEL

noun see: weak Date: circa 1760 any of a genus ( Hamamelis of the family Hamamelidaceae, the witch-hazel family) of shrubs or small trees with slender-petaled usually yellow flowers borne in late fall or early spring, an alcoholic solution of a distillate of the bark of a ~ ( H. virginiana ) used as a soothing and mildly astringent lotion