Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of umbelliferous plants, containing four or five species, one European and three or four American.

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

  • noun (Bot.) a genus of poisonous umbelliferous plants, of which the water hemlock or cowbane is best known.

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

  • noun archaic Hemlock.

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

  • noun small genus of perennial herbs having deadly poisonous tuberous roots: water hemlock

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin cicūta.

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Examples

  • The cicuta is a frequent plant on this river; we found the fox grape this afternoon nearly ripe.

    Memoirs of 30 Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers Schoolcraft, H R 1851

  • The cicuta is a frequent plant on this river; we found the fox grape this afternoon nearly ripe.

    Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers Henry Rowe Schoolcraft 1828

  • Quaecunque regio producit simplicia, pro morbis regionis; crescit raro absynthium in Italia, quod ibi plerumque morbi calidi, sed cicuta, papaver, et herbae frigidae; apud nos Germanos et Polonos ubique provenit absynthium.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • [3878] Socrates drank his portion of cicuta, he bid the citizens of Athens cheerfully farewell, and concluded his speech with this short sentence; My time is now come to be gone, I to my death, you to live on; but which of these is best, God alone knows.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Opium in Turkey doth scarce offend, with us in a small quantity it stupefies; cicuta or hemlock is a strong poison in Greece, but with us it hath no such violent effects: I conclude with I. Voschius, who as he much inveighs against those exotic medicines, so he promiseth by our

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • So did the inhabitants of the island of Choa, because their air was pure and good, and the people generally long lived, antevertebant fatum suum, priusquam manci forent, aut imbecillitas accederet, papavere vel cicuta, with poppy or hemlock they prevented death.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • The bruised leaves have successfully resolved tumours of hard (scirrhous) cancer when cicuta, and mercury had failed.

    Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure William Thomas Fernie

  • 'Three cups,' he says, 'make the common quantity, so slightly impregnated that, perhaps, they might be tinged with the Athenian cicuta, and produce less effects than these letters charge upon tea.'

    Life of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887

  • _ An Hemlok; _cicuta_, _harba benedicta_, _intubus_.

    The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Henry Nicholson Ellacombe 1868

  • Equal quantities of hemlock (or _cicuta_) and old cheese will poison them; but this renders the house liable to the inconvenience of a bad smell.

    American Woman's Home Harriet Beecher Stowe 1853

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