Definition of: pith

(pith) noun
1. Bot. The cylinder of soft, spongy tissue in the center of the stems and branches of certain plants.
2. Ornithol. The spongy substance of the interior of the shaft of a feather.
3. The marrow of bones or of the spinal cord.
4. Concentrated force; vigor; substance; hence, the essential part; quintessence; gist.
—v.t.
1. To destroy the central nervous system or spinal cord of, as a frog, by passing a wire through the vertebral column.
2. To remove the pith from, as a plant stem.
3. To kill (cattle) by severing the spinal cord. [OE pitha. Akin to PIT².]