Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A European plant (Arum maculatum) having arrow-shaped leaves, a purple or sometimes yellowish spadix partially enclosed by a yellow-green spathe, and scarlet berries.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The wake-robin, Arum maculatum.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun a common European arum (
Arum maculatum ) with lanceolate spathe and short purple spadix; it emerges in early spring, and is the source of a sagolike starch called arum. - noun (Bot.) A plant of the genus Arum (
Arum maculatum ); the European wake-robin.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany The
flowering plant Arum maculatum that has arrow-shaped leaves and a cluster of scarlet berries. - noun botany The related plant Arum italicum.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun common European arum with lanceolate spathe and short purple spadix; emerges in early spring; source of a starch called arum
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From obsolete cuckoopintle, from Middle English cokkupintel : cokku, cuccu, cuckoo; see cuckoo + pintel, penis (from the form of the spadix ); see pintle.]
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Examples
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The cuckoopint is an arum that appears in our woods in April, and is also known as lords-and-ladies, starch-root, Adam-and-Eve, bobbins and Wake Robin.
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