flax

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A widely cultivated plant, Linum usitatissimum, having pale blue flowers, seeds that yield linseed oil, and slender stems from which a textile fiber is obtained.
2. n. The fine, light-colored textile fiber obtained from this plant.
3. n. Any of various other plants of the genus Linum or of similar or related genera.
4. n. A pale grayish yellow.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The common name for plants of the genus Linum and for the fiber obtained from the stems of L. usitatissimum. This species, of unknown origin, has been in cultivation from a very remote period, and yields the principal vegetable fiber in popular use over the larger part of the old world. The plant is an annual, with slender stems about two feet tall, which by various processes are freed from all useless matter, leaving the elongated bast-cells in the form of a soft, silky fiber. This fiber is used in the manufacture of linen thread and cloth, cambric, lawn, lace, etc. The principal sources of supply are Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland. The flowers are blue. The seeds, known as linseed and flaxseed, are very mucilaginous, and are used on that account in medicine. They also yield an oil, which is extensively used by painters; and the residue, called linseed-cake, has much value as feed for cattle. The dwarf, fairy, mountain, or purging flax of England is L. catharticum; and the wild flax of the United States, L. Virginicum and L. perenne.
2. n. One of several plants of other genera, mostly resembling common flax, as the false or white flax (Camelina sativa), mountain flax (Polygala Senega), toadflax (Linaria vulgaris), New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax), which yields a strong fiber, and spurge-flax (Daphne Gnidium).
3. n. The whitethroat, Sylvia cinerea: with reference to the material composing its nest.
4. n. Canvas linen, made from flax, used for sailmaking.
5. To beat.
6. To move quickly; “knock” about: as, to flax round (to move about in a lively or energetic manner).
7. n. The field-cress or mithridate mustard, Lepidium campestre.
8. n. In New Zealand, L. monogynum; also the New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax. See Phormium.
9. n. Same as Lewis's wild flax.
10. n. Same as toad-flax.
11. n. Same as false flax.
12. n. The garden tickseed or calliopsis, Coreopsis tinctoria.

Wiktionary

1. n. A plant of the genus Linum, especially Linum usitatissimum, which has a single, slender stalk, about a foot and a half high, with blue flowers. Also known as linseed, especially when referring to the seeds.
2. n. The fibers of Linum usitatissimum, grown to make linen and related textiles.
3. n. A plant of the genus Phormium, native to New Zealand, with strap-like leaves up to 3 metres long that grow in clumps called flax bushes.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Linum, esp. the L. usitatissimum, which has a single, slender stalk, about a foot and a half high, with blue flowers. The fiber of the bark is used for making thread and cloth, called linen, cambric, lawn, lace, etc. Linseed oil is expressed from the seed.
2. n. The skin or fibrous part of the flax plant, when broken and cleaned by hatcheling or combing.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. fiber of the flax plant that is made into thread and woven into linen fabric
2. n. plant of the genus Linum that is cultivated for its seeds and for the fibers of its stem