Definitions

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

  • noun A poisonous aconite (Aconitum napellus) native to Europe, having racemes of blue or purple flowers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A plant of the genus Aconitum, especially A. Napellus. Also called friar's-cap, foxbane, helmet-flower, Jacob's-chariot, and wolf's-bane. See Aconitum and aconite.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A plant of the genus Aconitum; aconite. See aconite.

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

  • noun countable Any of various poisonous plants, of the genus Aconitum, with blue or white flowers in the shape of a hood
  • noun uncountable The dried leaves or flowers of these plants formerly used as a source of medicinal alkaloids

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

  • noun a poisonous herb native to northern Europe having hooded blue-purple flowers; the dried leaves and roots yield aconite

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

monks +‎ hood

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Examples

  • Water slipped by and beneath it, enough to send a trickle on down, but in the shade, a large, still pool had formed, and by its side long stalks of monkshood bent under the weight of their blue flowers.

    The Bread of Ruth’s Unhappiness « A Fly in Amber 2010

  • A few flowers remained in bloom, some pale lavender phlox that contrasted nicely against the brooding dark monkshood, and some roses, deep red climbers, their fragrance still heady this late in the season.

    A Different Light Mariah Stewart 2010

  • One day, I hope we'll sit over a drink (tea, wine, beer, coffee--I'm not fussy) and discuss family trees and troop movements and what to call things like monkshood before there were monks (well, that one's relatively easy: wolfsbane) and so on.

    Hereric of Deira Carla 2010

  • The arrows must have been dipped in a poison extracted from the monkshood flower, and the urn was marked to make the lethal arrows distinctive.

    The Ark Boyd Morrison 2009

  • It was a flower, the blossom of the monkshood plant.

    The Ark Boyd Morrison 2009

  • Dame's rocket, sweet William, monkshood, and meadow rue -- the old-fashioned names are so much prettier.

    Archive 2008-08-01 Gumbo Lily 2008

  • The white monkshood (Aconitum reclinatum) is found in moist mountain woods and adjacent floodplains of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and is endangered in the state (Wiegman, 1985, p. 57).

    Ecoregions of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia (EPA) 2008

  • Dame's rocket, sweet William, monkshood, and meadow rue -- the old-fashioned names are so much prettier.

    Remembering Tasha Tudor... Gumbo Lily 2008

  • Outside, the spikes of monkshood and delphinium stood erect and motionless against the shadow of the hillside.

    When the Sleeper Wakes 2006

  • The house door was standing open, and he went out beyond the porch, and stood where the monkshood rose at the corner of the garden bed.

    When the Sleeper Wakes 2006

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