Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several spiny evergreen shrubs of the genus Ulex of the pea family, especially U. europaeus, native to Europe and naturalized elsewhere, having fragrant yellow flowers and black pods.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The common furze or whin, Ulex Europæus.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) Furze. See
furze . - noun (Zoöl.), [Prov. Eng.] the European linnet; -- called also
gorse hatcher . - noun (Zoöl.) the winchat.
- noun the corncrake; -- called also
grass drake ,land drake , andcorn drake .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
evergreen shrub , of thegenus Ulex, havingspiny leaves and yellow flowers.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun very spiny and dense evergreen shrub with fragrant golden-yellow flowers; common throughout western Europe
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The Ridger: Fortunately, they can’t do much about the fact that gorse is furze (and whin, too, if you go to Scotland) and that Creutzfeld-Jakob disease can be called Jakob-Creutzfeld disease equally well (or even with K for C).
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The Senator remarked that the gorse was a very little place, — for as they were on the side of an opposite hill they could see it all.
The American Senator 2004
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The larches put out their little tassels, celandines opened their yellow eyes, the smell of the gorse was her youth wafted back to her and she shook her head and said she did not want it.
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The Senator remarked that the gorse was a very little place, -- for as they were on the side of an opposite hill they could see it all.
The American Senator Anthony Trollope 1848
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At least in the long term (the cold of last winter was a set-back), the charming little Dartford warbler, predominantly grey and dusky pink, a lover of heather and gorse, which is at the northern edge of its range in Britain, should become commoner as the climate becomes warmer.
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2010
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Introduced weeds such as gorse (Ulex europaeus), Chilean guava (Ugni molinae), and marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) are all problematic as well.
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Finally we came to a plateau covered with a kind of gorse, and with laurel bushes scattered here and there; pushing through this, we wound, by a gradual ascent, to the summit of Whiteside, and the edge of the precipice.
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What’s good for the gorse is a goad for the garden.
Finnegans Wake 2006
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It's not a particularly bright colour, nothing like the sunshine intensity of gorse, or a male brimstone's wings, not even as showy as the palest daffodil.
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To protect themselves from predation they like rough land such as heathland, and coastal terrain with good cover, such as that provided by furze (gorse) and other dense shrubbery.
azd commented on the word gorse
see furze
March 6, 2007