heath

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various usually low-growing shrubs of the genus Erica and related genera, native to Europe and South Africa and having small evergreen leaves and small, colorful, urn-shaped flowers. Also called heather.
2. n. An extensive tract of uncultivated open land covered with herbage and low shrubs; a moor.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Open, uncultivated land; a desert tract of land; specifically, in Great Britain, an uncultivated tract of heathy or shrubby land, usually of a desolate character.
2. n. A plant of the genus Erica, or, by extension, of the genus Calluna; any plant of the family Ericaceæ, called by Lindley heathworts. The species of Erica are widely distributed throughout Europe and the Mediterranean region, but are most abundant in South Africa, where they cover thousands of acres and constitute one of the principal forms of vegetation. The two best-known European species are E. cinerea, Scotch heather or fine-leafed heath, and E. Tetralix, the cross-leafed heath. (See cut under Ericaceæ.) The nearly allied genus Calluna, having only a single species, C. vulgaris, is more commonly called heather or ling. (See cut under Calluna.) In Great Britain heath or heather covers large tracts of waste land, and is used to thatch houses and to make brooms, and in some places for making beds. Sheep, goats, and cattle feed upon it, and bees extract a finely flavored honey from the flowers. The young shoots and flowers are said to have been formerly employed in the manufacture of beer. The species of southern Europe, Erica arborea, attains considerable size, and is called the tree-heath. From the wood of this species, and especially from that of another species of southern Europe, E. Mediterranea, are made most of the so-called brier-wood pipes, or brier tobacco-pipes. The moor-heaths belong to a section of the genus Erica called Gypsocallis by Don, and have somewhat different flowers and a different aspect. They are very beautiful plants, and inhabit moors and calcareous districts. The Cantabrian, Irish, or Saint Dabeoc's heath is a plant of a different genus of the heath family, Dabœcia polifolia. It is chiefly a native of Ireland, but is also found in western France, northern Spain, and the Azores. It is a dwarf, bushy, evergreen shrub, grows in dense tufts, and has racemes of purple flowers. It is also called Irish-whorts. The sea-heath, Frankenia lœois, is a low, heathlike maritime shrub inhabiting the European coasts. See Frankenia.
3. n. One of several small butterflies of different genera. The large heath is Erinephile tithonus; the small, Cænonympha pamphilus.
4. n. In Tasmania, the popular name for several species of the genus Epacris, especially E. impressa, a beautiful slender shrub bearing white or red axillary flowers. See Epacris.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any small evergreen shrub of the genus Erica.
2. n. A tract of level uncultivated land with sandy soil and scrubby vegetation; heathland.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A low shrub (Erica vulgaris or Calluna vulgaris), with minute evergreen leaves, and handsome clusters of pink flowers. It is used in Great Britain for brooms, thatch, beds for the poor, and for heating ovens. It is also called heather, and ling.
2. n. Also, any species of the genus Erica, of which several are European, and many more are South African, some of great beauty. See Illust. of heather.
3. n. A place overgrown with heath; any cheerless tract of country overgrown with shrubs or coarse herbage.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a low evergreen shrub of the family Ericaceae; has small bell-shaped pink or purple flowers
2. n. a tract of level wasteland; uncultivated land with sandy soil and scrubby vegetation