Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several herbs of the genus Digitalis, especially D. purpurea of Europe and northern Africa, having a long cluster of large, tubular, pinkish-purple flowers and leaves that are the source of the drug digitalis.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A common ornamental flowering plant of gardens, Digitalis purpurea, a native of Europe, where it is found in hilly and especially rocky subalpine localities.
  • noun The name in Jamaica of species of Phytolacca.
  • noun One of several plants of other genera.
  • noun The pitcher-plant, Sarracenia purpurea.
  • noun The trumpet-creeper, Campsis radicans.

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

  • noun (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Digitalis. The common English foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is a handsome perennial or biennial plant, whose leaves are used as a powerful medicine, both as a sedative and diuretic. See digitalis.

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

  • noun botany Digitalis, a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous biennials native to the Old World, certain of which are prized for their showy flowers. The drug digitalis or digoxin was first isolated from the plant.

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

  • noun any of several plants of the genus Digitalis

Etymologies

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

[From the resemblance of its flowers to the fingers of a glove.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From fox +‎ glove.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Name from "folks glove"...The Folk being a respectful term for fairies

    February 17, 2008

  • The name of this flower is straightforwardly from what it looks like: fox + glove. It occurs in Old English as foxes glofa and foxes clofe, and c. 1265 as foxesgloue. These clearly show (i) no /l/, and (ii) the /s/ of the genitive distinct from the /s/ of the root 'fox'.

    At this time the /l/ was still pronounced in 'folk'. The folk etymology "folks glove" could only be made after the /l/ had been lost.

    Its genus Digitalis was recently moved by APG II from family Scrophulariaceae into Plantaginaceae.

    July 3, 2008

  • I remember my sister eating foxgloves once and having to go to hospital.

    July 3, 2008

  • Yikes!

    July 4, 2008

  • I love the idea of foxes wearing little dainty gloves. *cute overload*

    July 4, 2008

  • I only wear my gloves on formal occasions, such as when doing laundry or raiding the chicken-coop. Have to maintain deniability, and avoid leaving little incriminating vulpine pawprints.

    Obviously, the above paragraph is the work of a malicious hacker. I don't even like tuna of the yard. I am an innocent woodland creature whose good name is being besmirched. It's probably some kind of Sardinian-marsupial yazuka that is out to get me.

    Innocent, I tell you!

    November 29, 2008

  • *still loves the idea of foxes wearing little dainty gloves*

    November 29, 2008