Definitions

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

  • noun A Eurasian primrose (Primula elatior) having yellow flowers clustered in a one-sided umbel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The variety elatior of the common primrose, Primula veris, in which the limb of the corolla is broader and flatter and the flowers are raised on a common peduncle. By many it is considered a distinct species.

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

  • noun (Bot.) The great cowslip (Primula veris, var. elatior).

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

  • noun The plant Primula elatior, similar to cowslip but with larger, pale yellow flowers.

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

  • noun Eurasian primrose with yellow flowers clustered in a one-sided umbel

Etymologies

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

[Middle English oxeslippe, from Old English oxanslyppe : oxan, genitive sing. of oxa, ox + slyppe, slimy substance; see sleubh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English *oxeslyppe, from Old English oxanslyppe ("oxlip"), from oxan, genitive of oxa ("ox") + slyppe ("paste, slimy substance"). Compare cowslip, of similar formation.

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Examples

  • The only interesting point is the frequency of the production of natural hybrids, i.e. oxlips, and the existence of one kind of oxlip which constitutes a third good and distinct species.

    Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 James Marchant

  • The only interesting point is the frequency of the production of natural hybrids, i.e. oxlips, and the existence of one kind of oxlip which constitutes a third good and distinct species.

    Alfred Russel Wallace Letters and Reminiscences Marchant, James 1916

  • They are scarcely more dissimilar than the primrose, the cowslip, and the oxlip, which have all been raised from the seed of the same plant, and are now regarded by botanists as varieties instead of species.

    An Expository Outline of the "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" With a Notice of the Author's "Explanations:" A Sequel to the Vestiges Anonymous

  • In the spring the mead through which we were passing was a natural parterre, where in the midst of the lively vernal green, bloomed the oxlip, the white and blue violet, the yellow-cup dotted with jet, and many another fragile and aromatic member of the floral sisterhood.

    Woman on the American Frontier William Worthington Fowler

  • The trees are alive and leafy, the shrubs are pushing, and the spring flowers, wood anemones, violets, and the oxlip (which in this country takes the place of the primrose and the cowslip) flower beautifully among the shell-holes, rags, and old tins of war.

    The Old Front Line John Masefield 1922

  • Flowers like the oxlip, with transparently thin petals, only faintly washed with colour, yet have a distinct and pervasive scent.

    The Spring of Joy: A Little Book of Healing 1917

  • The London rocket (_Sisymbrium irio_) occurs only in the old towns of Hertford and Ware; the true oxlip (_Primula elatior_) near the head of the River Stort; a very rare broom-rape, _Orobanche cærulea_, at

    Hertfordshire Herbert Winckworth Tompkins 1901

  • I enticed him to a field where I knew it was possible to secure an occasional oxlip, but he only looked pale, shook his head distressingly, and said, I don't think nothin 'of

    Mary's Meadow; and Letters From a Little Garden 1886

  • Now it is to tell us that he has found yellow archangel growing under a sequestered hedge "on the left hand as you go from the village of Hampstead, near London, to the church," or that "this amiable and pleasant kind of primrose" (a sort of oxlip) was first brought to light by Mr. Hesketh, "a diligent searcher after simples," in a Yorkshire wood.

    Gossip in a Library Edmund Gosse 1888

  • Cowslip and oxlip are familiar names of varieties of the same plant, and they bear so close a resemblance that it is hard to tell them apart.

    The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: Pepacton John Burroughs 1879

Comments

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  • Primula elatior - a european primrose akin to the cowslip...

    April 20, 2007

  • Hmm...wonder why it's not "oxslip"? Or more correctly, "oxenlip"? ;-)

    April 20, 2007

  • I don't know, but I'm not a fan - it just looks wrong.

    April 20, 2007

  • Just having a little fun. Actually, it looks difficult enough to pronounce as is without all the extra letters thrown in.

    April 20, 2007

  • That's what I mean. Oxlip just sits there and quivers like a blob of glup. *huuuhg*

    April 20, 2007

  • Hmm...you're right. It is most definitely gluppy.

    April 20, 2007