Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various plants of the genus Lythrum, having spikes of purple or white flowers, especially the purple loosestrife.
- noun Any of various perennial plants of the genus Lysimachia, having usually yellow flowers.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In botany, the English popular name of several species of plants, chiefly of the genera Lysimachia and Lythrum.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The name of several species of plants of the genus Lysimachia, having small star-shaped flowers, usually of a yellow color.
- noun Any species of the genus Lythrum, having purple, or, in some species, crimson flowers.
- noun a plant of the genus Ludwigia, which includes several species, most of which are found in the United States.
- noun the plant
Lysimachia thyrsiflora , found in the northern parts of the United States and in Europe.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun any of several
flowering plants of two differentgenera , Lythrum (purple loosestrife ) or Lysimachia (yellow loosestrife)
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of numerous herbs and subshrubs of the genus Lythrum
- noun any of various herbs and subshrubs of the genus Lysimachia
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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A beautiful example is purple loosestrife, which is good looking but an invasive species here.
Greening America: One Household at a Time - Talking with Susan Agate and Mike Slutsky 2009
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I mean, it's great that the wolf and deer population would boom, but wouldn't the purple loosestrife boom too?
Day in the Life of an Idiot lyda222 2009
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Of course the silver flowery embroidery of her dress mingles with the stream and connects with the sprays of white dog rose above; and the purple loosestrife on the bank calls out to the poppies, violets and daisies of her bouquet now scattered on the water.
Culture Maxine 2009
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It's a soggy meadow dominated by mosses and plants such as skunk cabbage and Purple loosestrife.
Deep in a Dutchess Fen Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011
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Teresa: ...how the consequences of letting retailers use recorded music as a loss leader reduced the once-complex ecology of the music business to Bermuda grass, kudzu, purple loosestrife, Ailanthus altissimus, cockroaches, pigeons, and albino sewer alligators.
Making Light: A music exec's take on the Macmillan/Amazon throwdown 2010
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“Hello there,” said the girl, offering Cadal Forge the loosestrife.
The Night Of the Solstice L.J. SMITH 2010
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If you look at it solely in terms of transactions, you'll see that someone who wants purple loosestrife and cockroaches for dinner can get them.
Making Light: A music exec's take on the Macmillan/Amazon throwdown 2010
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In her right hand she held a bunch of purple loosestrife, still dripping wet; on her left wrist perched a small bright-eyed falcon.
The Night Of the Solstice L.J. SMITH 2010
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One way to understand Susan Pivar's article is that she's describing how the consequences of letting retailers use recorded music as a loss leader reduced the once-complex ecology of the music business to Bermuda grass, kudzu, purple loosestrife, Ailanthus altissimus, cockroaches, pigeons, and albino sewer alligators.
Making Light: A music exec's take on the Macmillan/Amazon throwdown 2010
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If you look at it solely in terms of transactions, you'll see that someone who wants purple loosestrife and cockroaches for dinner can get them.
Making Light: A music exec's take on the Macmillan/Amazon throwdown 2010
yarb commented on the word loosestrife
The bride and bridegroom were not young, and the stiff movements with which they yet gladly led the dance, and the quiet, tired merriment of their middle-aged friends, gave the occasion a quality of its own; with which the faded purples of the loosestrife and mallows leaning out above the water on the white walls on the island were somehow in harmony.
- Rebecca West, The Judge
July 29, 2009