columbine

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“
I was pleased with the columbine, and felt a strong desire to be acquainted with her.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Any of various perennial herbs of the genus Aquilegia native to north temperate regions, cultivated for their showy, variously colored flowers that have petals with long hollow spurs. Also called aquilegia.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • They would leave the great gray construct of Belari's castle and walk carefully across the mountain meadows, Stephen always helping her, guiding her fragile steps through fields of daisies, columbine, and lupine until they peered down over sheer granite cliffs to the town far below. —  F ;SF - vol 104 issue 06 - June 2003
  • Reading up, I've seen a few plants I already grow recommended as attractants, but I've never seen hummers feeding from them - petunia, columbine, azaleas, butterfly bush, and weigela. —  Garden Rant
  • I knew columbine was a flower - in fact, given the way I collect what may seem to be useless information, I even knew it was President Dwight D. Eisenhower's favorite flower.
  • I longed to see the pantomime, having heard much from my cousins and from Leo of its delights--and of the harlequin, columbine, and clown. —  A Flat Iron for a Farthing or Some Passages in the Life of an only Son
  • Wild columbine, the delicate corydalis, and more uvularias, which she called yellow bells, were added to her handful, till it grew a very elegant bunch indeed. —  The Wide, Wide World
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Medieval Latin columbīna, from feminine of Latin columbīnus, dovelike (from the resemblance of the inverted flower to a cluster of doves), from columba, dove.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. = French colombin, from Latin columbinus, adjective, from columba, a dove: see Columba. Cf. columbine.
  2. from Middle English columbine = French colombine, from Middle Latin columbina, columbine, properly feminine of Latin columbinus, dove-like: see columbine. Cf. the equivalent name culverwort.
 

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/ˈkɑləmbaɪn/
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