Definitions

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

  • noun A thistlelike Eurasian plant (Carthamus tinctorius) in the composite family, having orange flowers that produce seeds containing an oil used for cooking and in food products, cosmetics, and paints.
  • noun The dried flowers of this plant, formerly used as a source of yellow and orange dyes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A composite plant, Carthamus tinctorius; also, a drug and dyestuff consisting of its dried florets.

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

  • noun (Bot.) An annual composite plant (Carthamus tinctorius), the flowers of which are used as a dyestuff and in making rouge; bastard, or false, saffron.
  • noun The dried flowers of the Carthamus tinctorius.
  • noun A dyestuff from these flowers. See Safranin (b).
  • noun a purgative oil expressed from the seeds of the safflower.

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

  • noun botany A cultivated thistle-like plant, Carthamus tinctorius, family Asteraceae, now grown mainly for its oil.

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

  • noun thistlelike Eurasian plant widely grown for its red or orange flower heads and seeds that yield a valuable oil

Etymologies

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

[Middle English saflour, from Old French safleur, from Old Italian saffiore (influenced by Old Italian fiore, flower), from Arabic ‘uṣfur.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle French safleur, from Arabic اصفر (áṣfar, "yellow").

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