Definitions

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

  • noun A flower, especially a carnation, having petals edged by a contrasting color.
  • noun A contrasting edge on the petals of a flower.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of a group of florists' varieties of the carnation, having petals with a white or yellow ground, marked at the outer margin only with red or other color.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A variety of carnation having petals of a light color variously dotted and spotted at the edges.

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

  • noun A variety of decorative carnation.

Etymologies

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

[French picoté, marked with points, past participle of picoter, to mark with points, from picot, point, picot; see picot.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French picoté ("marked with points").

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Examples

  • I refer to them more often as “That great peachy one Jeri gave me” or “The deep red fellow with the gold picotee edge.”

    Wordless Dayliles-Part Three 2009 « Fairegarden 2009

  • First she would put a leaf inside with a big violet lying on it, then she would put a very small white picotee, perhaps, on each side of the violet, and then she would sprinkle some lavender on the top, but not to cover their heads.

    Bliss, and Other Stories 1920

  • Heddewigii; imperialis; laciniatus, Salmon Queen; plumarius; superbus, dwarf fl. pl.; picotee.

    Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) 1906

  • Among those who remained faithful were Lord LAMBOURNE (in the Peers 'Gallery), who had for this occasion substituted a posy of primroses for his usual picotee, and, quaintly enough, Mr. HOGGE, who had not hitherto been suspected of Disraelian sympathies.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-04-25 Various 1898

Comments

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  • A silence followed before he came to the other side of her table and said, "Stop that noise. I want to speak to you." The gesture was rude, but it was picoteed with a faint edge of pitifulness.

    - Rebecca West, The Judge

    July 29, 2009