noun. Any of numerous plants of the genus Agave, native to hot, dry regions of the Americas and having basal rosettes of tough, usually spiny-margined leaves. Agaves are grown for ornament, fiber, and food.

noun. A large North American genus of plants, of the natural order Amaryllidaceæ, chiefly Mexican.

noun. [lowercase] A plant of this genus.

noun. A genus of plants (order Amaryllidaceæ) of which the chief species is the maguey or century plant (Agave Americana), wrongly called Aloe. It is from ten to seventy years, according to climate, in attaining maturity, when it produces a gigantic flower stem, sometimes forty feet in height, and perishes. The fermented juice is the pulque of the Mexicans; distilled, it yields mescal. A strong thread and a tough paper are made from the leaves, and the wood has many uses.

noun. A plant of the genus Agave which includes the maguey or century plant. Attaining maturity, it produces a gigantic flower stem.

noun. tropical American plants with basal rosettes of fibrous sword-shaped leaves and flowers in tall spikes; some cultivated for ornament or for fiber

"Although the process varies from distiller to distiller, the basics are pretty much the same: first the agave is allowed to grow for ten years."