Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various annual plants of the genus Fumaria native to Eurasia and Africa, having finely divided leaves and small, spurred, purplish flowers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The common name for species of the genus Fumaria.
  • noun A smoking-room.
  • noun The hollow-wort, Capnoides cavum.

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

  • noun (Bot.) The common uame of several species of the genus Fumaria, annual herbs of the Old World, with finely dissected leaves and small flowers in dense racemes or spikes. F. officinalis is a common species, and was formerly used as an antiscorbutic.
  • noun (Bot.) the Alleghany vine (Adlumia cirrhosa); a biennial climbing plant with elegant feathery leaves and large clusters of pretty white or pinkish flowers looking like grains of rice.

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

  • noun botany A plant of the taxonomic genus Fumaria, which are annual herbaceous flowering plants in the family Fumariaceae, native to temperate Europe and Asia.

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

  • noun delicate European herb with greyish leaves and spikes of purplish flowers; formerly used medicinally

Etymologies

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

[Middle English fumetere, from Old French fumeterre, from Medieval Latin fūmus terrae : Latin fūmus, smoke + Latin terrae, genitive of terra, dry land, earth; see ters- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Bird's-foot trefoil and bugloss, poppies and cornflowers, fumitory and fleabane – there were about 20 species all in bloom and, aside from the great surge of colour, the highlight for me was the bumblebees, mainly common carder and red-tailed bumblebees, that trafficked through the flowers all day long.

    Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker 2010

  • * I learned that Uncle Jean-Claude collected fumitory as a kid, selling it for centimes to the pharmacist, who, in turn, made up potions that cured everything from conjunctivitis to evil spirits.

    vivace - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • * I learned that Uncle Jean-Claude collected fumitory as a kid, selling it for centimes to the pharmacist, who, in turn, made up potions that cured everything from conjunctivitis to evil spirits.

    French Word-A-Day: 2008

  • * I learned that Uncle Jean-Claude collected fumitory as a kid, selling it for centimes to the pharmacist, who, in turn, made up potions that cured everything from conjunctivitis to evil spirits.

    French Word-A-Day: 2008

  • * I learned that Uncle Jean-Claude collected fumitory as a kid, selling it for centimes to the pharmacist, who, in turn, made up potions that cured everything from conjunctivitis to evil spirits.

    French Word-A-Day: 2008

  • * I learned that Uncle Jean-Claude collected fumitory as a kid, selling it for centimes to the pharmacist, who, in turn, made up potions that cured everything from conjunctivitis to evil spirits.

    vivace - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • As syrup of borage (there is a famous syrup of borage highly commended by Laurentius to this purpose in his tract of melancholy), de pomis of king Sabor, now obsolete, of thyme and epithyme, hops, scolopendria, fumitory, maidenhair, bizantine, &c.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Helleboratus major and minor in Quercetan, and Syrupus Genistae for hypochondriacal melancholy in the same author, compound syrup of succory, of fumitory, polypody, &c.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • No help for it: this would be a great day for collecting rare specimens of variegated shepherd's purse or green fumitory.

    In the Garden of Iden 1997

  • The climbing fumitory comes up of itself from seed every year, and is now running over bushes, stakes, and strings, and is full of fern-like leaves and flesh-colored flowers.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 299, September 24, 1881 Various

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