Definitions

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

  • noun A drug prepared from the dried leaves of Digitalis purpurea, used as a cardiac stimulant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of plants, natural order Scrophulariaceœ, containing about 20 species of tall herbs, natives of Europe and western Asia.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A genus of plants of the family Schrophulariaceae, including the foxglove.
  • noun (Med.) The dried leaves of the purple foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), formerly used in heart disease, disturbance of the circulation, etc. Its use has been largely replaced by that of the pure active ingredient, digitalin. See digitalin.

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

  • noun A genus of herbaceous plants of the Scrophulariaceae family, including the foxglove, Digitalis purpurea.
  • noun A medical extract of Digitalis purpurea prescribed for heart failure etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of several plants of the genus Digitalis
  • noun a powerful cardiac stimulant obtained from foxglove

Etymologies

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

[Latin digitālis, of a finger (from the finger-shaped corollas of foxglove), from digitus, finger; see digit.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Modern Latin, from Latin digitālis (named with reference to the German common name for the plant, Fingerhut ("thimble")).

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    October 9, 2017