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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Any of various plants of the genus Helleborus, native to Eurasia, most species of which are poisonous.
  2. n. Any of various plants of the genus Veratrum, especially V. viride of North America, having large leaves and greenish flowers and yielding a toxic alkaloid used medicinally.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A plant of the genus Helleborus, of the natural order Ranunculaceæ, particularly H. niger, the black hellebore or Christmas rose, a native of southwestern Europe. It is a drastic hydragogic cathartic, possessing emmenagogic powers, in overdoses producing inflammation of the gastric and intestinal mucous membrane, with violent vomiting, vertigo, cramp, and convulsions, which sometimes end in death. H. viridis, the green hellebore, a native of Europe, is naturalized in the United States. The fetid or stinking hellebore is H. fœtidus, a name also given to the skunk-cabbage, Symplocarpus fœtidus.
  2. n. A name of similar plants of other genera. Eranthis hiemalis, a plant closely allied to Helleborus, is called winter hellebore. Veratrum viride, a liliaceous plant, is known as American, false, or white hellebore, swamphellebore, and Indian poke.
  3. n. The powdered root of American hellebore, used to destroy lice and caterpillars.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A common garden flowering plant, Ranunculaceae helleborus, having supposed medicinal properties.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Bot.) A genus of perennial herbs (Helleborus) of the Crowfoot family, mostly having powerfully cathartic and even poisonous qualities. Helleborus niger is the European black hellebore, or Christmas rose, blossoming in winter or earliest spring. Helleborus officinalis was the officinal hellebore of the ancients.
  2. n. (Bot.) Any plant of several species of the poisonous liliaceous genus Veratrum, especially Veratrum album and Veratrum viride, both called white hellebore.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. perennial herbs of the lily family having thick toxic rhizomes
  2. n. any plant of the Eurasian genus Helleborus

Etymologies

  1. Middle English ellebre, from Old French, from Latin elleborus, from Greek helleboros : perhaps hellos, fawn + -boros, eaten (from bibrōskein, to eat). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. Christmas rose

same context (25)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. ipecac
  2. ratsbane
  3. burdock
  4. aconite
  5. deobstruent
  1. rampion
  2. antiscorbutic
  3. wolfsbane
  4. henbane
  5. sudorific
  1. citronella
  2. anthelmintic
  3. water lily
  4. where'er
  5. digitalis
  1. hartshorn
  2. arborvitae
  3. lemon-grass
  4. curare
  5. vomica
  1. larkspur
  2. capsicum
  3. marjoram
  4. nightshade
  5. fireweed

reverse dictionary (37)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. Indian poke
  2. bugbane
  3. bear's-foot
  4. setterwort
  5. stinking hellebore
  6. helleborus foetidus
  7. hellebore
  1. swamp-hellebore
  2. helleborize
  3. jervine
  4. ellebore
  5. helleborein
  6. helleborin
  7. helleborism
  1. christmas flower
  2. devil's-bite
  3. protoveratrine
  4. melampode
  5. bitume
  6. earth-gall
  7. elleborin
  1. helleboraceous
  2. helleboraster
  3. itchweed
  4. lingwort
  5. aconite
  6. helleborate
  7. helleboric
  1. veratridine
  2. veratric acid
  3. veratrine
  4. white hellebore
  5. sneezewort
  6. felon-grass
  7. melanthiaceæ
  1. pseudojervine
  2. sabadilline

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  • sonofgroucho Here's a hellebore:
    Helleborus Feb 1, 2008

  • treeseed "Now the doctors had it all their own way; and to work they went in earnest, and they gave the poor professor divers and sundry medicines, as prescribed by the ancients and moderns, from Hippocrates to Feuchtersleben, as below, viz.:-
    1. Hellebore, to wit -
    Hellebore of Aeta.
    Hellebore of Galatia.
    Hellebore of Sicily.
    And all other Hellebores, after the method of
    the Helleborizing Helleboreists of the
    Helleboric era. But that would not do.
    Bumpsterhausen's blue follicles would not
    stir an inch out of his encephalo digital
    region.

    _from Water Babies - Charles Kingsley, 1937 Jan 29, 2008

  • sonofgroucho I love hellebores. Dec 17, 2007

  • bilby "He then banteringly advised them to import six shiploads of hellebore of the very best quality, and on its arrival distribute it among the citizens, at least seven pounds per head, but to the senators double that quantity, as they were bound to have an extra supply of sense."
    - prologue to first edition of 'The Robbers' (Die Räuber), Friederich Schiller, 1781. Translator unknown. Dec 17, 2007

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‘hellebore’ has been looked up 1752 times, loved by 2 people, added to 23 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.