dahlia

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“
An oak is an oak, whether green with spring, or red with winter; a dahlia is a dahlia, whether it be yellow or crimson; and if some monster hunting florist should ever frighten the flower blue, still it will be a dahlia; but not so if the same arbitrary changes could be effected in its form.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Any of several plants of the genus Dahlia native to the mountains of Mexico, Central America, and Colombia, having tuberous roots and showy, rayed, variously colored flower heads.
  2. noun The flower head of one of these plants.

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Examples (50)

  • It is a scentless flower; but there is a purer summer pleasure in the sweet-brier than the dahlia, though one would have each in his garden. —  Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis
  • So Victoria's life was not all arched over with dahlia-garlands, and strewn with roses, nor were her subjects all Sunday-school scholars CHAPTER XI. —  Queen Victoria, Her Girlhood And Womanhood
  • But it was no longer a dahlia, and for the red of its petals I saw only the red of some feeble firelight. —  Collected Stories
  • And yet, despite the dahlia-filled vases and the pale sunbeams that the wind blew flickeringly across satin and polished wood, the place had a cold sepulchral air. —  A Guilty Thing Surprised
  • Left to itself the dahlia, a most generous plant, will produce crop after crop of flowers, ever increasing in number. —  Article Source
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Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. New Latin Dahlia, genus name, after Anders Dahl (1751-1787), Swedish botanist.
 

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