Definitions

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

  • noun A perennial herb (Cichorium intybus) of the composite family, native to Europe and widely naturalized in North America, usually having blue flowers.
  • noun Any of various forms of this plant cultivated for their edible leaves, such as radicchio.
  • noun The dried, roasted, ground roots of this plant, used as an adulterant of or substitute for coffee.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The popular name of Cichorium Intybus, a composite plant common in waste places, found throughout Europe and Asia as far as India, and naturalized in the United States.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A branching perennial plant (Cichorium Intybus) with bright blue flowers, growing wild in Europe, Asia, and America; also cultivated for its roots and as a salad plant; succory; wild endive. See endive.
  • noun The root, which is roasted for mixing with coffee.

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

  • noun botany Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family: true chicory (Cichorium intybus) and endive (Cichorium endivia)

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

  • noun perennial Old World herb having rayed flower heads with blue florets cultivated for its root and its heads of crisp edible leaves used in salads
  • noun root of the chicory plant roasted and ground to substitute for or adulterate coffee
  • noun the dried root of the chicory plant: used as a coffee substitute
  • noun crisp spiky leaves with somewhat bitter taste

Etymologies

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

[Middle English cicoree (from Old French cichoree) and French chicorée, both from Latin cichorium, cichorēum, from Greek kikhoreia, pl. diminutive of kikhorā.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French chicorée, from Old French cicoree, from Late Latin *cichōria, from Latin cichōrium, from Ancient Greek.

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Examples

  • The chicory is a special red stemmed one that I am in love with - mild enough for salads.

    full as a goog esther 2007

  • The chicory is a special red stemmed one that I am in love with - mild enough for salads.

    Archive 2007-08-01 esther 2007

  • Then at the same time you had into New York from San Juan, they came on the so-called chicory flights.

    Damon Runyan: A Life 1991

  • Coffee is frequently adulterated with chicory, which is harmless.

    Public School Domestic Science Adelaide Hoodless 1884

  • They're extracting fiber from corn, seaweed and roots of herbs such as chicory or using bacteria to synthesize fibers.

    High-Fiber Foods May Be Easier to Stomach This Time Around 2009

  • You might call radicchio (rah-DEE-kee-o) 'chicory' and in appearance and texture, it's easy to mistake radicchio for red cabbage, especially once it's chopped up in a salad.

    Archive 2005-07-01 2005

  • You might call radicchio (rah-DEE-kee-o) 'chicory' and in appearance and texture, it's easy to mistake radicchio for red cabbage, especially once it's chopped up in a salad.

    Summer Orzo with Radicchio ♥ | A Veggie Venture 2005

  • "These are really interesting results as they demonstrate that gastro-intestinal acceptability of dietary fibres such as chicory fructans is not as limitating as it has been described previously," she added.

    NutraIngredients-USA RSS 2009

  • "These are really interesting results as they demonstrate that gastro-intestinal acceptability of dietary fibres such as chicory fructans is not as limitating as it has been described previously," she added.

    NutraIngredients-USA RSS 2009

  • "These are really interesting results as they demonstrate that gastro-intestinal acceptability of dietary fibres such as chicory fructans is not as limitating as it has been described previously," she added.

    NutraIngredients RSS 2009

Comments

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  • beautiful blue wayside flower, often seen growing among Queen Anne's Lace

    February 17, 2008

  • Not Centaurea cyanus (the "common cornflower"), and not Cichorium endivia (curly endive), though "chicory" has been used to refer to either.

    July 6, 2015