Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several plants of the genus Euphrasia, having small, opposite, toothed leaves and white and purplish flowers grouped in spikes.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The popular name of the plant Euphrasia officinalis. Also called eyewort.
- n. Several plants which are either reputed remedies for diseases of the eye, or, more frequently, have bright flowers, usually with a central spot suggesting the pupil of the eye: Any plant of the genus Euphrasia.
- n. The sundew, Drosera rotundifolia.
- n. The Indian-pipe, Monotropa uniflora.
- n. The pimpernel or poor-man's weather-glass, Anagallis arvensis.
- n. The germander speedwell, Veronica Chamædrys: also called angel's-eye, bird's-eye, and god's-eye.
- n. The bluet or innocence, Houstonia cærulea.
- n. The officinal lobelia or emetic-weed, Rapuntium inflatum.
Wiktionary
- n. any of the flowering plants of the genus Euphrasia, some of which are used to treat eye infections
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A small annual plant (Euphrasia officinalis), formerly much used as a remedy for diseases of the eye.
Etymologies
- eye + bright (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Euphrasia (eyebright, which is known to cause a clear and bland nasal discharge along with tearing of the eyes that burns and irritates the skin under the eye), Ambrosia (ragweed, an herb that creates pollen that is known to be irritating to some hay fever sufferers), and Solidago (goldenrod, an herb that creates pollen that is known to be irritating to some hay fever sufferers).”
“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.”
“I had collected a pocketful of eyebright and dittany by the time they finished talking and Hugh Munro rose to go.”
“Annuals and ephemeral species are very few (e.g., cold eyebright – Euphrasia frigida; and Iceland purslane – Koenigia islandica).”
“The intertidal zone is heavily stressed and eroded by ice in winter, which favors annuals such as the endemic hairgrass Deschampsia bottnica, found only in the Gulf of Bothnia and eyebright Euphrasia bottnica.”
“An eyewash made of eyebright and other herbs can be soothing to irritated and inflamed eyes.”
“Since the Middle Ages, eyebright has been used as a tonic and an astringent.”
“It has almost entirely healed by now – thanks in part to my using an eye bath and rinsing my eyeball with tinctures of astragalus and eyebright – and although I gave my mother the fright I knew I ...”
“It has almost entirely healed by now – thanks in part to my using an eye bath and rinsing my eyeball with tinctures of astragalus and eyebright – and although I gave my mother the fright I knew I would – all is now well AND I have the set the bar for klutz way the heck up there.”
“Night after night, I find myself dreaming that I am wide-eyed and wandering on Swardeston Common, looking for the tracks of foxes and badgers, feet crushing vetch, and eyebright and red clover.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘eyebright’.
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Ponderable Plant Names
List of plant names (common or scientific) that go trippingly off the tongue, are fun to contemplate, expose the wit of the namer, or just plain befuddle.
tongueshape mudmi..., glandular maiden ..., jeweled maiden fern, stately maiden fern, hairy maiden fern, downy maiden fern, widespread maiden..., turkey tangle fog..., yankeeweed, clitoria fragrans, clitoria mariana, tall tumblemustard and 261 more...
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See, The Eyes Have It
List of words (or phrases) containing eye-, -eye-, or -eye. Beginning with red-eye and eyebright.
I've since begun adding other more oblique terms that lack the string -eye-, but that...red-eye, eyebright, arguw-eye, bigeye, bird's-eye, buckeye, blarneyed, wheyey, eyebrow, eyecup, eyedropper, eyeful and 296 more...
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Flora
Flowers and plants have some of the most beautiful names.
These are often the common names, as opposed to the scientific or botanical names.daffodil, gardenia, tulip, snapdragon, violet, orchid, bleeding heart, daisy, lily, lilac, narcissus, rose and 278 more...
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Random Words
lochia, confused, innoxious, naive, cockatrice, derisive, parsley, passive, casual, football, innuendo, Rumanian and 174 more...
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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Outlander series words
A place for me to keep words I found (or found anew) while reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (Culling my enormous "Learned (or Encountered) in Reading" list.)
gralloch, yeuk, corpse-candle, saprophytic, baldachin, Kermanshah, celandine, tynchal, quaich, mesentery, basidium, dittany and 244 more...
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a modern herbal
mugwort, horehound, hellebore, chamomile, comfrey, rosemary, calendula, rose, lavender, lamb's quarters, gamboge, mustard and 108 more...
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The Crow Road
Words encountered while reading Iain Banks's terrific "The Crow Road"
machair, brindle, nimrod, cullen skink, lochan, the kyles of bute, kip, gateaux blaster, condign, percussive cremation, ballast mound, braw and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for eyebright.
chained_bear "I could glean little of the content of the conversation, and busied myself instead with a survey of the strange little rock plants sprouting from the surfaces of our perch.
I had collected a pocketful of eyebright and dittany by the time they finished talking and Hugh Munro rose to go."
—Diana Gabaldon, Outlander (NY: Delacorte Press, 1991), 327 Jan 2, 2010