Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A plant having compound leaves with three small leaflets, especially a clover or wood sorrel.
- noun The compound leaf of one of these plants.
- noun A representation of one of these plants or leaves, used as a national emblem of Ireland.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A plant with trifoliate leaves: the national emblem of Ireland.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A trifoliate plant used as a national emblem by the Irish. The legend is that St. Patrick once plucked a leaf of it for use in illustrating the doctrine of the trinity.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
trefoil leaf of any smallclover , especially Trifolium repens, or such a leaf from a clover-like plant. - noun Any of several small
plants , forms ofclover , with trefoil leaves, especially Trifolium repens.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun Eurasian plant with heart-shaped trifoliate leaves and white purple-veined flowers
- noun creeping European clover having white to pink flowers and bright green leaves; naturalized in United States; widely grown for forage
- noun clover native to Ireland with yellowish flowers; often considered the true or original shamrock
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Three men were attempting to do the Riverdance in shamrock-shaped slippers.
Fancy dress and a lot of bottle at Andorra's ski party Shazia Mirza 2010
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The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish ground;
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But the shamrock is a tender a plant, it's beauty soon will fade
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"Then you don't know why the shamrock is our national emblem?"
Handy Andy, Volume 2 — a Tale of Irish Life Samuel Lover 1832
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For years I was lead to believe that the shamrock was a large, green 3 leaf clover, in my mind, ranging from the size of a 5c to 20c piece.
TravelPod.com TravelStream? ? Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2010
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"St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, explaining the Holy Trinity by the shamrock, which is three persons in one God," says Byrne.
Winnipeg Sun 2009
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The shamrock is the symbol of the struggle against oppression.
unknown title 2009
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Just a few comments: 1. The three leaf clover you refer to is in fact 'shamrock', our national symbol.
Freedom Center Firing Workers Nathaniel Livingston 2005
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A distinguished Irishman once showed me the "shamrock" he was wearing in his buttonhole as "the true" plant of that name.
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Thus the small Lucerne clover or medicago is often sold as "shamrock" to Irish patriots, and the watercress has been solemnly pat forward as the true shamrock simply because old writers tell us, as evidence of the barbarous state of the Irish, that they fed upon shamrocks and watercress.
misterpolly commented on the word shamrock
Though not the official symbol of the Irish Republic (the Harp) a very popular symbol. Legend has it that St. Patrick used the shamrock with its three leaves on one stalk to illustrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity when he was converting the natives to Christianity.
February 19, 2008
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word shamrock
Outrage! I demand a realrock!
January 16, 2010