Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A milkweed.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A common name for the Confervaceæ, or fresh-water algæ that consist of long, soft filaments resembling silk. See
Confervaceæ - noun Same as
milkweed , 1.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) Any plant of the genera Asclepias and Acerates whose seed vessels contain a long, silky down; milkweed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany Any plant of the genera Asclepias and Acerates whose seed vessels contain a long, silky down;
milkweed .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of numerous plants of the genus Asclepias having milky juice and pods that split open releasing seeds with downy tufts
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word silkweed.
Examples
-
Walking in the lane, we came upon a large mixed flock, feeding on the thistles and silkweed of an adjoining field which is overrun with these weeds.
Rural Hours 1887
-
The wild cucumber, a very troublesome plant, the great white convolvulus, the dodder, the field sorrel, the pokeweed, the silkweed, with one or two plantains and thistles, of the rarer kinds, are among the most important of those whose origin is clearly settled as belonging to this continent.
Rural Hours 1887
-
Yet evidently it is not the perfume of any flower that attracts the bees; they pay no attention to the sweet-scented lilac, or to heliotrope, but work upon sumach, silkweed, and the hateful snapdragon.
Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and Other Papers John Burroughs 1879
-
Their lines were made of the tough, fibrous, silken bark of the variety of milkweed or silkweed, already mentioned.
Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity Their History, Customs and Traditions Galen Clark 1862
-
The patient should also drink freely of a strong tea of liverwort, and use bitters composed of one-third silkweed root and two-thirds butterfly root.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.