Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several plants of the genus Arctium of the composite family, having edible roots and pink or purplish flower heads surrounded by prickly bracts that form burs.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The common name of the Arctium Lappa, a coarse, broad-leafed biennial weed, natural order Compositæ, having the numerous awns of the involucral bracts hooked at the tip.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A genus of coarse biennial herbs (
Lappa ), bearing small burs which adhere tenaciously to clothes, or to the fur or wool of animals.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of the species of
biennial thistles in the genus Arctium.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of several erect biennial herbs of temperate Eurasia having stout taproots and producing burs
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word burdock.
Examples
-
This is particularly well reported for bats, with Hill & Smith (1984) discussing cases of bats dying after being entangled in burdock burs, after getting impaled on the spines of cacti, desert shrubs and rose thorns, and after getting strangled by Spanish moss fibres.
Archive 2006-05-01 Darren Naish 2006
-
"The _Articum Lappa_, more commonly called the burdock," explained
John Henry Smith A Humorous Romance of Outdoor Life Frederick Upham Adams 1890
-
Blood-cleansing herbs such as burdock root, dandelion root, red clover flower, and nettle leaf—in any combination—given to a nursing mother or to the newborn will help clear impurities from the bloodstream, thus helping clear cradle cap.
Gentle Healing for Baby and Child Andrea Candee 2000
-
Large green leaves were wrappers, some of them, such as burdock, cooked as greens.
The Clan of the Cave Bear Auel, Jean M. 1980
-
Forager Steve Brill leads walks in New York City, finding items such as burdock root, wild carrots and wild parsnips.
-
"There are a certain number of plants which we always looked upon as weeds, such as burdock and wild carrot, for example.
The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. Ellen Eddy Shaw
-
Add celery, carrot and burdock and sauté for 5 more minutes.
Meg Wolff: Plant-Based: A Hearty Bean, Grain and Vegetable Soup That's Also Wheat- and Gluten-Free (Video) Meg Wolff 2012
-
Add celery, carrot and burdock and sauté for 5 more minutes.
Meg Wolff: Plant-Based: A Hearty Bean, Grain and Vegetable Soup That's Also Wheat- and Gluten-Free (Video) Meg Wolff 2012
-
Add celery, carrot and burdock and sauté for 5 more minutes.
Meg Wolff: Plant-Based: A Hearty Bean, Grain and Vegetable Soup That's Also Wheat- and Gluten-Free (Video) Meg Wolff 2012
-
Add celery, carrot and burdock and sauté for 5 more minutes.
Meg Wolff: Plant-Based: A Hearty Bean, Grain and Vegetable Soup That's Also Wheat- and Gluten-Free (Video) Meg Wolff 2012
ofravens commented on the word burdock
This is Azalea Path.
A field of burdock opens to the south.
from "Electra on Azalea Path," Sylvia Plath
April 8, 2008