Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A poisonous annual plant (Datura stramonium) in the nightshade family, having large, trumpet-shaped white or purplish flowers and prickly egg-shaped seed capsules.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany, US A poisonous plant Datura stramonium, in the nightshade (Solanaceae) family. A hallucinogen occasionally ingested by those looking for a cheap high.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of Jamestown weed, after Jamestown, Virginia, where in 1676 regimental cooks inadvertently fed the plant to British soldiers and intoxicated them.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Jimson (alteration of Jamestown) + weed

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Examples

  • Local lore is that the "Angel Trumpet" flower, also known as jimsonweed, devil's trumpet, jamestown weed, loco weed, moonflower, and thorn-apple and which grows practically as a weed in this area, is used to make the drug.

    Panama Guide 2009

  • I'll admit that I was more than a little jumpy as I made my way through this gauntlet of jimsonweed and Huggies, but as I grew closer and began to make out the outline of the bunker's entrance, I heard music, faintly at first, but growing louder with each footstep until I finally recognized it as ABBA's Waterloo.

    Live blogging for Lieberman or how Bill Kristol saved my life 2006

  • In the patio, the heart of the U-shaped house, she let seeds of wild grama grass, gray-green sagebrush, and jimsonweed sprout.

    Portrait of An Artist Laurie Lisle 1986

  • Then Dilsie could sleep in the cabin, as she ought to on account of the jimsonweed in her phthisic pipe.

    The Tinder-Box Maria Thompson Daviess 1898

  • Salpiglossis belongs to the always-interesting Solanaceae family, which includes edible fruits such as tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants but also tobacco, deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and poisonous jimsonweed (Datura stramonium).

    SFGate: Top News Stories 2010

  • Subsequent investigation by the Montgomery County health officials determined the stew contained jimsonweed -- Datura stramonium.

    Latest News - UPI.com 2010

  • ATLANTA, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Health officials should be aware of the signs of anticholinergic toxicity and consider jimsonweed poisoning as a cause of illness, U.S. health officials say.

    Latest News - UPI.com 2010

  • New Mexico's state Office of the Medical Investigator reported that investigators had found an almost empty container of jimsonweed tea at the campsite where William Hodge and his friends had been spending time just prior to his death.

    Yahoo! News: Technology News 2009

  • The virus infects most Allium species and also is known to infect some ornamentals (iris, lisianthus) and some weeds (jimsonweed, tobacco, redroot pigweed) (UC-IPM).

    Western Farm Press RSS Feed 2009

  • Thomas and his friend, whom police have not identified, became critically ill after eating seeds from a jimsonweed plant.

    unknown title DIANA BALDWIN NewsOK.com 2009

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  • Well, close friends of Jim have known this for a long time.

    May 29, 2024