Definitions

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

  • noun A mock orange shrub.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A plant of the genus Philadelphus; the mock-orange.

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

  • noun A genus of plants; the lilac.
  • noun The mock orange; -- popularly so called because its stems were formerly used as pipestems.

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

  • noun Any of several flowering plants, of the genus Syringa, such as the lilacs.

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

  • noun genus of Old World shrubs or low trees having fragrant flowers in showy panicles: lilacs
  • noun large hardy shrub with showy and strongly fragrant creamy-white flowers in short terminal racemes

Etymologies

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

[New Latin, from Greek surinx, suring-, shepherd's pipe (from the use of its hollow stems to make pipes).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek σῦριγξ ("pan pipes").

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Examples

  • _ (DD) (The name syringa is commonly misapplied to the species of _Philadelphus.

    Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) 1906

  • A syringa was planted in front, and a broom-tree on the right united it with the willow; in the middle there was a deal table.

    Camilla 2008

  • My favorite thing was all of the syringa flowers, like etched on the carpet how do they even do that? and in the glass windows...very pretty.

    Twin Falls Temple Janelle Johnson 2008

  • There was a deafening bang, and a large section of the syringa tree detached itself and plummeted to the ground.

    Rainbow’s End Lauren St John 2007

  • Their activities upset the natural status quo, and we awoke one morning to find a pair of adult boomslangs Afrikaans for tree snake—“boo-um-slung”, the female brown, the male pea green, looped in a bow at the top of the syringa tree in the driveway.

    Rainbow’s End Lauren St John 2007

  • Their activities upset the natural status quo, and we awoke one morning to find a pair of adult boomslangs Afrikaans for tree snake—“boo-um-slung”, the female brown, the male pea green, looped in a bow at the top of the syringa tree in the driveway.

    Rainbow’s End Lauren St John 2007

  • These are Jacaranda mimosifolia, Lantana camara, syringa (Melia azedarach), and white mulberry (Morus alba).

    Southern Africa bushveld 2007

  • There was a deafening bang, and a large section of the syringa tree detached itself and plummeted to the ground.

    Rainbow’s End Lauren St John 2007

  • Ether de Lilas Blanc sur Feuillage Tendre, built around a note of white lilac syringa vulgaris alba, and also featuring the notes of passion-flower, orange blossom, bark, mandarin, lilac, leaves, iris and musk, is perhaps my favorite of the three.

    Archive 2007-03-01 Marina Geigert 2007

  • Wistaria chinensis, and brightened by azalea and syringa clusters.

    Unbeaten Tracks in Japan Isabella Lucy 2004

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  • I long for the baby to wander hither to me

    Like a wind-shadow wandering over the water,

    So that she can stand on my knee

    With her little bare feet in my hands,

    Cool like syringa buds,

    Firm and silken like pink young peony flowers.

    - D.H. Lawrence, ' A Baby Running Barefoot'.

    September 8, 2009

  • "On this particular evening, Mme de Guermantes had given me, knowing that I was fond of them, some branches of syringa which had been sent to her from the South. When I left her and went upstairs to our flat, Albertine had already returned, and on the staircase I ran into Andrée, who seemed to be distressed by the powerful smell of the flowers that I was bringing home."

    --The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, pp 63-64 of the Modern Library paperback edition

    December 29, 2009

  • "But we lost our heads all the same, so that to conceal our embarrassment we both of us, without having a chance to consult each other, had the same idea: to pretend to dread the scent of syringa which as a matter of fact we adored."

    --The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 812 of the Modern Library paperback edition

    February 20, 2010

  • "At all events, nobody could ever mention syringa again in her hearing without her turning crimson and putting her hand over her face in the hope of hiding her blushes."

    --The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 813 of the Modern Library paperback edition

    February 20, 2010

  • State flower of Idaho, my home state.

    February 20, 2010

  • "Then I thought again of the evening of the syringa, and remembered that about a fortnight later, as my jealousy kept changing its object, I had asked Albertine whether she had ever had relations with Andrée, and she had replied: "Oh! never! Of course, I adore Andrée; I have a deep affection for her, but as I might have for a sister, and even if I had the tastes which you seem to suppose, she's the last person I should have thought of in that connexion. I can swear to you by anything you like, the honour of my aunt, the grave of my poor mother." I had believed her."

    --The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 827 of the Modern Library paperback edition

    February 20, 2010

  • "The spray of syringa made me profoundly sad, as did also the thought that Albertine could have believed, and said, that I was treacherous and hostile; and most of all, perhaps, certain lies so unexpected that I had difficulty in grasping them."

    --The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 828 of the Modern Library paperback edition

    February 20, 2010