Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various plants of the genus Malva of the mallow family, having pink, purple, or white axillary flowers, palmate or dissected leaves, and dry disk-shaped fruits.
  • noun Any of various other plants in the mallow family, such as the rose mallow.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any plant of the genus Malva, or of the order Malvacæ, the mallow family.
  • noun In England, a plant of either of the genera Sida and Urena.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A genus of plants (Malva) having mucilaginous qualities. See malvaceous.
  • noun See Abutilon.
  • noun a plant (Corchorus olitorius) used as a pot herb by the Jews of Egypt and Syria.
  • noun See under Marsh.

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

  • noun Any of a group of flowering plants in several genera of the taxonomic family Malvaceae, especially of the genus Malva. Several species are edible by humans.

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

  • noun any of various plants of the family Malvaceae

Etymologies

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

[Middle English malwe, from Old English mealwe and from Old French malve, both from Latin malva, probably of Semitic origin; see mlḥ in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English mealwe, from Latin malva. Compare mauve.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word mallow.

Examples

  • This is common mallow, which is similar to the plant from which marshmallow used to be made.

    Modern Hunter-Gatherers Bruce Palling 2011

  • GreeNoodle, a new instant noodle, gets a dose of added nutrition from moroheiya (aka mallow and mulukhiyah).

    Cool Hunting 2010

  • Although my mallow was a bit too soft in the end, all was not lost - into the hemisphere mold it went, and a long stay in the freezer fixed the situation.

    BitterSweet 2009

  • Common mallow, which is shown here, is also called cheeses because the small fruits that form in late summer resemble tiny wheels of cheese.

    Slashfood 2008

  • , a new instant noodle, gets a dose of added nutrition from moroheiya (aka mallow and mulukhiyah).

    Cool Hunting Evan Orensten 2010

  • Not surprisingly, it grows in marshes and is related to other "mallow" plants, such as the rose mallow, the apricot mallow, and the common mallow.

    Boing Boing: July 17, 2005 - July 23, 2005 Archives 2005

  • It is named for the Greek word for "mallow", a green herb.

    unknown title 2009

  • The 'mallow' part of the name comes from the Latin name for the plant - Malva.

    The Old Foodie 2008

  • He had a pile of khubaizeh too, a hairy green mallow that grew in vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and piles of construction debris.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • After our walk we returned to our rooms to dress and then enjoyed a huge repast of fresh country bread, roast chicken, stewed carp, pike with quince cream, artichoke pie—a new vegetable from Italy—mallow salad, hard cheese, sack posset, cider, and canary wine.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.