cubeb - the small, spicy berry of a species of pepper (Piper Cubeba; in med., Cubeba officinalis), native in Java and Borneo, but now cultivated in various tropical countries. The dried unripe fruit is much used in medicine as a stimulant and purgative., cubeb - 1) spicy fruit of the cubeb vine; when dried and crushed is used medicinally or in perfumery and sometimes smoked in cigarettes; 2) tropical southeast Asian shrubby vine bearing spicy berrylike fruits (syn: cubeb vine, Java pepper, Piper cubeba)