Definitions

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

  • noun A bulbous herb (Allium schoenoprasum) native to Eurasia, having clusters of usually pink to rose-violet flowers and cultivated for its long, slender, hollow leaves.
  • noun The leaves of this plant used as a seasoning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A piece cut off.
  • noun In botany, the filament which supports the anther of a flower; a stamen.
  • noun Same as cive.

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

  • noun (Bot.), obsolete A filament of a stamen.
  • noun (Bot.) A perennial plant (Allium Schoenoprasum), allied to the onion, having hollow cylindrical leaves used for seasoning. The young leaves are used in omelets, etc.
  • noun the bulbous herb Allium Schoenoprasum used fresh as a mild onion-flavored seasoning.

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

  • noun A plant that is perennial (Allium schoenoprasum), related to the onion.
  • noun The leaves of this plant used as a herb.

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

  • noun perennial having hollow cylindrical leaves used for seasoning

Etymologies

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

[Middle English chive, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin cēpa, onion.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Old French cive, from Latin cepa ("onion").

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