mandioca n cassava with long tuberous edible roots and soft brittle stems; used especially to make cassiri (an intoxicating drink) and tapioca Usage(s) Dyspeptic, diar-rehic, goitred and leprous, the Indians had multiplied to 800,000 by 1932, living chiefly on maize and mandioca bread, exporting yerba mat tea, tinned meat and . Synonym(s) bitter cassava manioc mandioc tapioca plant gari Manihot esculenta Manihot utilissima