Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various hemiparasitic plants of the genus Euphrasia, having tubular whitish to purplish flowers with two lobed lips and formerly used to treat eye disorders.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The popular name of the plant Euphrasia officinalis. Also called
eyewort . - noun Several plants which are either reputed remedies for diseases of the eye, or, more frequently, have bright flowers, usually with a central spot suggesting the pupil of the eye: Any plant of the genus Euphrasia.
- noun The sundew, Drosera rotundifolia.
- noun The Indian-pipe, Monotropa uniflora.
- noun The pimpernel or poor-man's weather-glass, Anagallis arvensis.
- noun The germander speedwell, Veronica Chamædrys: also called angel's-eye, bird's-eye, and god's-eye.
- noun The bluet or innocence, Houstonia cærulea.
- noun The officinal lobelia or emetic-weed, Rapuntium inflatum.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A small annual plant (
Euphrasia officinalis ), formerly much used as a remedy for diseases of the eye.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun any of the
flowering plants of the genus Euphrasia, some of which are used to treateye infections
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Euphrasia (eyebright, which is known to cause a clear and bland nasal discharge along with tearing of the eyes that burns and irritates the skin under the eye), Ambrosia (ragweed, an herb that creates pollen that is known to be irritating to some hay fever sufferers), and Solidago (goldenrod, an herb that creates pollen that is known to be irritating to some hay fever sufferers).
Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009
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Euphrasia (eyebright, which is known to cause a clear and bland nasal discharge along with tearing of the eyes that burns and irritates the skin under the eye), Ambrosia (ragweed, an herb that creates pollen that is known to be irritating to some hay fever sufferers), and Solidago (goldenrod, an herb that creates pollen that is known to be irritating to some hay fever sufferers).
Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009
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Euphrasia (eyebright, which is known to cause a clear and bland nasal discharge along with tearing of the eyes that burns and irritates the skin under the eye), Ambrosia (ragweed, an herb that creates pollen that is known to be irritating to some hay fever sufferers), and Solidago (goldenrod, an herb that creates pollen that is known to be irritating to some hay fever sufferers).
Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009
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Wet-kneed, we walked by pastures filled with the white froth of meadowsweet and river-bank flora of lady's bedstraw, betony, devil's bit scabious, greater burnet and eyebright, kneeling several times to store memories of the scent of the last of the fragrant orchids.
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I had collected a pocketful of eyebright and dittany by the time they finished talking and Hugh Munro rose to go.
Sick Cycle Carousel 2010
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Annuals and ephemeral species are very few (e.g., cold eyebright – Euphrasia frigida; and Iceland purslane – Koenigia islandica).
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An eyewash made of eyebright and other herbs can be soothing to irritated and inflamed eyes.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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Since the Middle Ages, eyebright has been used as a tonic and an astringent.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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It has almost entirely healed by now – thanks in part to my using an eye bath and rinsing my eyeball with tinctures of astragalus and eyebright – and although I gave my mother the fright I knew I ...
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The intertidal zone is heavily stressed and eroded by ice in winter, which favors annuals such as the endemic hairgrass Deschampsia bottnica, found only in the Gulf of Bothnia and eyebright Euphrasia bottnica.
chained_bear commented on the word eyebright
"I could glean little of the content of the conversation, and busied myself instead with a survey of the strange little rock plants sprouting from the surfaces of our perch.
I had collected a pocketful of eyebright and dittany by the time they finished talking and Hugh Munro rose to go."
—Diana Gabaldon, Outlander (NY: Delacorte Press, 1991), 327
January 2, 2010