Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several weedy or ornamental plants of the genus Galium, having whorled leaves, clusters of small white or yellow flowers, and prickly stems. Also called cleavers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Straw used in stuffing a mattress or bed. [In this literal sense properly with a hyphen.]
- n. A popular name of the different species of the genus Galium, from the old practice of using it in beds. Our Lady's or yellow bedstraw is G. verum; white bedstraw is G. Mollugo. See Galium. A name given to Desmodium Aparines.
Wiktionary
- n. a plant of the madder family with small pointed leaves and hairy stems with small, white or yellow flowers
- n. obsolete straw put into a bed
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Straw put into a bed.
- n. (Bot.) A genus of slender herbs, usually with square stems, whorled leaves, and small white flowers.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of several plants of the genus Galium
Etymologies
- bed + straw (Wiktionary)
- Short for Our Lady's Bedstraw, name for a plant of the genus Galium, whose foliage was used to stuff mattresses in medieval times. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I have never seen so much lady's bedstraw, its sun-drenched scent redolent with the dreams of medieval bedrooms.”
“I followed the path beside ancient overgrown hedges, heavy with elder blossom and sheltering patches of lady's bedstraw and betony, down to the banks of the river Wear where tree planting began this spring in lower-lying fields.”
“Gatherings of flies on the tall, white plate flowers of hogweed; burnet moths swinging on the yellow, sweetly scented lady's bedstraw; soldier beetles copulating wildly on their grass stems: these creatures were drawn to plants as places, to be inhabited by animal passions.”
“Wet-kneed, we walked by pastures filled with the white froth of meadowsweet and river-bank flora of lady's bedstraw, betony, devil's bit scabious, greater burnet and eyebright, kneeling several times to store memories of the scent of the last of the fragrant orchids.”
“Lady's bedstraw was in high flower until very recently and I eventually found some growing near the pavement on someone's lawn.”
“Chief among these is woodruff, but lady's bedstraw is a more accessible plant, common in many hedgerows.”
“The wonderful smell of lady's bedstraw not as sickly as meadowsweet becomes stronger with drying.”
“A long walk – followed, after my back started complaining, by a suspicious-looking hedgerow kerb-crawl – produced nothing except hedge bedstraw, which doesn't smell of anything nice at all.”
“Hogweed, pale pink valerian and festoons of bedstraw line a lane and frame distant views of Hawk's Tor, up on the edge of Bodmin Moor above the Lynher river.”
“Heavy doses of nitrogen fertiliser will tip the competitive balance in favour of grasses, and soon purple wood crane's bill, blood-red greater burnet, frothy white pignut and meadowsweet, yellow lady's bedstraw, globe flower and blue speedwells will vanish, leaving an "improved" pasture – more productive, more profitable, but oh-so dull.”
The Guardian: Make hay meadow photos while the sun shines | Phil Gates
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bedstraw’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Straw
Straw, straw, strawberry, strawberry-wise, strawberry blond, strawberry tree, barren strawberry, bedstraw, Our Lady's Bedstraw, strawberry bass, straw hat, straw man and 33 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (B)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
balcony, bailey, baguette, bairn, balalaika, baldric, balefire, baby's breath, ballet, balm of gilead, balsam, baluster and 188 more...
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Another day, a whole nother list
rump, spot on, flank, outflank, rank, bedeck, leafhopper, apocope, academic, set-to, point of no return, cloy and 210 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bedstraw.
ruzuzu See cleavers. See also galium. Sep 28, 2010
slumry Galium Known as Ladies Bedstraw, it was used to fill matresses. Jul 18, 2007