Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various aquatic or wetland sedges chiefly of the genus Scirpus, having grasslike leaves and usually clusters of small, often brown spikelets.
- noun Any of several wetland plants of similar aspect, such as the papyrus and the cattail.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The popular name for large rush-like plants growing in marshes.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A kind of large rush, growing in wet land or in water.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of several
wetland herbs , of the genusScirpus , having clusters of spikelets. - noun Any similar plant, such as
papyrus .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun tall marsh plant with cylindrical seed heads that explode when mature shedding large quantities of down; its long flat leaves are used for making mats and chair seats; of North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa
- noun tall rush with soft erect or arching stems found in Eurasia, Australia, New Zealand, and common in North America
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The name bulrush is more correctly applied to _Scirpus lacustris_, a member of a different family (Cyperaceae), a common plant in wet places, with tall spongy, usually leafless stems, bearing a tuft of many-flowered spikelets.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" Various
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The giant was in the midst of it; but weak as the bulrush were the mighty limbs of Maximus before the rushing gale.
Ungava 1859
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Trivia note of the week: apparently this plant used to be called reedmace, and became known as 'bulrush' because of an erroneously named but popular painting.
High summer Carla 2008
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Trivia note of the week: apparently this plant used to be called reedmace, and became known as 'bulrush' because of an erroneously named but popular painting.
Archive 2008-08-01 Carla 2008
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The meaner sort are covered with mats which they make of a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but not so good as the former ....
Walden 2004
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The meaner sort are covered with mats which they make of a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but not so good as the former ....
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The meaner sort are covered with mats which they make of a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but not so good as the former ....
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a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but not so good as the former ....
Walden Henry David Thoreau 1839
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The meaner sort of wigwams are covered with mats they make of a kind of bulrush, which are also indifferent tight and warm, but not so good as the former. "
Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 02 Samuel de Champlain 1601
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I've also done "Flyway Fried Rice" with wild rice, bulrush shoots, black walnuts, wild onions and wild duck.
Stephanie J. Stiavetti: An Interview With Hank Shaw, the Hunter/Angler/Gardener/Cook Stephanie J. Stiavetti 2011
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