Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several plants of the genus Eupatorium in the composite family, especially the eastern North American species E. perfoliatum, having opposite leaves united around the stem and clusters of small white flower heads.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To set bones; practise the setting of broken bones.
  • noun The thoroughwort, Eupatorium perfoliatum. See Eupatorium.
  • noun In England, an old name for the comfrey, Symphytum officinale.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A medicinal plant, the thoroughwort (Eupatorium perfoliatum). Its properties are diaphoretic and tonic.

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

  • noun Any of several plants of the genus Eupatorium.
  • noun The herb common boneset.

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

  • noun European herb having small white, pink or purple flowers; naturalized as a weed in North America
  • noun perennial herb of southeastern United States having white-rayed flower heads; formerly used as in folk medicine

Etymologies

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

[From its use as a folk medicine.]

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Examples

  • I think Mrs. Klopton was fascinated out of her theories by the "boneset" in connection with the fractured arm.

    The Man in Lower Ten Mary Roberts Rinehart 1917

  • "It's after, 'boneset's good for colds,'" said Polly, puckering up her face again at the thought.

    Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Margaret Sidney 1884

  • There was the witch hazel I had asked for, boneset and comfrey for tea, and something I tentatively identified as cherry bark.

    Sick Cycle Carousel 2010

  • The boneset, comfrey, and cherry bark were steeping in a small pan of hot water set by the fire.

    Sick Cycle Carousel 2010

  • Come cold and flu season, boneset can be invaluable in relieving coughs and upper-respiratory congestion, helping to loosen up phlegm, and clearing nasal passages.

    Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008

  • Come cold and flu season, boneset can be invaluable in relieving coughs and upper-respiratory congestion, helping to loosen up phlegm, and clearing nasal passages.

    Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008

  • I remembered the names of boneset and snakeroot, both in bloom right now, and knew them one from the other, and maybe because of that I found this other road, and wandered quite away from everything.

    ears full of falling asakiyume 2008

  • Come cold and flu season, boneset can be invaluable in relieving coughs and upper-respiratory congestion, helping to loosen up phlegm, and clearing nasal passages.

    Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008

  • Come cold and flu season, boneset can be invaluable in relieving coughs and upper-respiratory congestion, helping to loosen up phlegm, and clearing nasal passages.

    Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008

  • Malva and I had started some fresh penicillin the day before, and had made up fresh tinctures of boneset and troutlilly, and some fresh gentian salve, as well.

    A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005

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  • "The dragonflies hung above the still surface like turquoise needles and woodpeckers knocked at the dead willow branches up above. The opposite bank was a rich jungle of jewelweed and boneset."

    Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright, pp 112-113 of the 2002 hardcover edition

    July 12, 2011