gillyflower

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“
In May the rich brown and gold of the gillyflower is seen on every side, and their fragrance is wafted far and wide by every breeze that blows Then there is a very pretty plant that covers some of the cottage walls at this time of year.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun The carnation or a similar plant of the genus Dianthus.
  2. noun Any of several plants, such as the wallflower, that have fragrant flowers.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (40)

  • “I sincerely doubt he can.” Harry stripped off his gloves and threw them onto the table with the gillyflower, then turned to the stairs. —  AN UNWILLING CONQUEST
  • Instead it contains special natural ingredients like gillyflower, ginger, and cinnamon that give your mouth a slight warming feeling while promoting circulation in your gums. —  Cool Hunting
  • Great bunches of wallflower, thyme, spearmint, batchelor buttons, gardeners' gartens, peony roses, gillyflower, and southernwood, were stuck in their button holes; and broad belts of stripped silk, of every colour in the rainbow, were flung across their shoulders. —  The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith
  • We shall not succeed in making a peasant's opinion good evidence on the merits of the Elgin and Lycian marbles; nor is it necessary to dictate to him in his garden the preference of gillyflower or of rose; yet I believe we may make art a means of giving him helpful and happy pleasure, and of gaining for him serviceable knowledge 155. —  A Joy For Ever (And Its Price in the Market)
  • By the aid of a microscope, a 'gillyflower' was seen protecting a chrysalis. —  Trifles for the Christmas Holidays
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Alteration (influenced by flower) of Middle English gilofre, from Old French gilofre, girofle, clove, from Late Latin gariofilum, from Greek karuophullon : karuon, nut; see kar- in Indo-European roots + phullon, leaf; see bhel-3 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English gilloflower, gelliflowre, etc., also geraflour, gerraflour; a corruption, simulating flower, of early modern English gilliver, gillyvor, gillover, gillofer, gelevor, etc.; from Middle English gyllofer, gyllofre, gilofre, gelofer, short for clove gilofre (modern English clove-gillyflower), earliest form as Old French, clou de gilofre (Ancren Riwle): Old French clou, nail, clove (see clove); de, of; gilofre, also girofle, girofre, French girofle, clove (-tree), giro-flēe, gillyflower, = Provencal girofle, gerofle = Spanish girofle, girofre = Portuguese gyrofe, clove (gyrofeiro, clove-tree), = Italian garofano, clove (viola garofanata, clove-gillyflower), = Turk, qarenfll, karemfil = Arabic Par. qaranful, clove, carnation; corrupted from Middle Latin caryophyllum, from Greek καρυόφυλλον, the clove-tree, literally ‘nut-leaf,’ from κάρυον, a nut, + φύλλον = Latin folium, a leaf. See clove-gillyflower.
 

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/ˈdʒɪlɪflaʊər/
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