Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Black-lead; graphite. See graphite.
  • noun [capitalized] [NL. (Tournefort, 1700).] A genus of plants, the leadworts, of the order Plumbagineæ and tribe Plumbageæ. characterized by a glandular calyx with five short erect teeth, a salver-shaped corolla with slender tube, free stamens, and five styles united into one nearly to the top.

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

  • noun (Min.) Same as graphite.
  • noun (Bot.) A genus of herbaceous plants with pretty salver-shaped corollas, usually blue or violet; leadwort.

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

  • noun mineralogy graphite
  • noun botany leadwort

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

  • noun used as a lubricant and as a moderator in nuclear reactors
  • noun any plumbaginaceous plant of the genus Plumbago

Etymologies

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

[Latin plumbāgō, lead ore, a kind of plant, from plumbum, lead (the plant perhaps being so called because of the color of its flowers, or of another of its parts, or from the fact that it was used to cure a livid discoloration of the eyelid).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin plumbāgō, from plumbum ("lead").

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Examples

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  • Back pain induced by sitting unnaturally straight for long periods of time.

    November 16, 2007