Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sweet sticky substance excreted by various insects, especially aphids, on the leaves of plants.
- n. A sweet exudate similar to honeydew on the leaves of plants.
- n. A honeydew melon.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A saccharine substance found on the leaves of trees and other plants in small drops like dew. There are two kinds, one secreted from the plants, and the other by plant-lice, bark-lice, and leaf-hoppers. Bees and ants are said to be fond of honeydew. The name is properly applied to the sugary secretion from the leaves of plants, occurring most frequently in hot weather. It usually appears as small glistening drops, but if particularly abundant may drip from the leaves in considerable quantity, when it has been called
manna . The manna-ash, Fraxinus Ornus, exhibits this phenomenon, as does Carduus arctioides. - n. A kind of chewing-tobacco prepared with molasses.
Wiktionary
- n. A sweet sticky substance deposited on leaves by insects.
- n. A sweet sticky substance produced by the leaves of some plants.
- n. countable A melon with sweet green flesh, with a smooth greenish-white exterior.
- n. A light bluish green colour, like that of a honeydew melon.
- adj. Of a light bluish green colour, like that of a honeydew melon.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A sweet, saccharine substance, found on the leaves of trees and other plants in small drops, like dew. Two substances have been called by this name; one exuded from the plants, and the other secreted by certain insects, esp. aphids.
- n. A kind of tobacco moistened with molasses.
- n. A honeydew melon.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the fruit of a variety of winter melon vine; a large smooth greenish-white melon with pale green flesh
Etymologies
- honey + dew (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The airborne fungal spores infect the young florets before grain development and produce a sweet sticky liquid called honeydew, which is pink or red.”
“I love Magnolia and I do love tuberose; perhaps the apres mousson treatment I can't decide how I feel about the Hermes, once I tried it and it was wonderful, once it was like being smothered by a honeydew is the way to go with some of these flowers without actually suffocating someone with them.”
“Aphids secrete a sugary, high-protein substance called honeydew which some kinds of ants harvest from them.”
“The surge in water also made the city's trees healthier, which spawned a population boom among aphids - with their propensity to drip their waste, known as honeydew, onto patios and passersby, they can be almost as annoying as their blood-feasting brethren.”
“Aphids suck the sap out of plants and excrete a sugary substance called honeydew that makes the leaves sticky.”
“The insect deposits waxy tubules of waste as it feeds, and also emits a mist of so-called honeydew that encourages the growth of sooty mold on leaves.”
“Aphids, also from Asia, suck the nutrients from soybean plants and emit a sticky residue called honeydew that can produce leaf mold.”
“Some species are even herded by ants that collect the "honeydew" waste product in exchange for protection.”
“The presence of ground-fog, "honeydew," more attractive flowers, or a coming change of wind or temperature (nothing caring to stir in an east, north, or northeast wind) will sometimes account for this.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘honeydew’.
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CULI - wine-tasting adjectives
In this area of expertise nouns are frequently used as adjectives (almond, bacon, cider, diesel, fennel, fresh-cut hay, wool) or new adjectives are formed (appley, berrylike, citrusy, full-bodied, ...
acetic, acidic, aged, angular, appley, astringent, attractive, austere, berrylike, big, bitter, brawny and 511 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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honey phrases/words
how honey is used
clarified honey, clover honey, corn honey, honey agaric, honey ant, honey-apple, honey-baby, honey-badger, honey-bag, honey-balm, honey banana, honey-basket and 205 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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Green
olive, grass, dark green, light green, emerald, lime, moss, sea green, jade, asparagus, apple green, camouflage green and 17 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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miscellany
extrapolate, effluvium, maelstrom, ecclesiastic, potentiate, prestidigitation, verisimilitude, innocuous, octogenarian, interlocutor, proselytize, ubiquitous and 138 more...
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Foodie
As much fun to say as they are to eat.
blueberry, cider, almond, apricot, asparagus, banana, fudge, foldover, flapjacks, filbert, fig, biscuit and 217 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (H)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
haberdashery, hailstone, halcyon, halibut, halo, hamadryad, hammock, harangue, harbour, harebell, harlequin, harp and 104 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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Jacqueline's Words
glittery, horny, amazing, wanderlust, forlorn, lustily, nonchalant, cool, passive, submissive, roundabout, carousel and 558 more...
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NihonGoose's Words
colander, doily, nacre, mandible, carapace, glutinous, penumbral, skein, mollify, colloquial, sanguine, chagrin and 118 more...
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Chromonyms
These chromonyms are defined as colors in at least one dictionary (mostly MW3). (Actually there's one fake, for reasons I'll explain someday.) They are all one-word nouns such as "kelly", which can...
absinthe, acacia, acorn, alabaster, alesan, almond, aloma, amaranth, amber, amethyst, anemone, anil and 821 more...
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Food
.
spaghetti, yogurt, muesli, rarebit, wheat, cream, cheese, pumpkin, custard, couscous, oats, sausage and 237 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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wordrainbow
A big list of color names for use on wordrainbow.com
emerald, cherry, coffee, cream, almond, gold, kiwi, green, grass green, aquamarine, beet red, sepia and 714 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for honeydew.

misterpolly What a lovely word! I'm pleased to discover what it is. It is used by Coleridge in Kubla Khan: "For he on honewdew hath fed / And drunk the milk of paradise." Dec 10, 2007