hyacinth

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A bulbous Mediterranean plant (Hyacinthus orientalis) having narrow leaves and a terminal raceme of variously colored, usually fragrant flowers, with a funnel-shaped perianth. Also called jacinth.
2. n. Any of several similar or related plants, such as the grape hyacinth.
3. n. Greek Mythology A plant, perhaps the larkspur, gladiolus, or iris, that sprang from the blood of the slain Hyacinthus.
4. n. A deep purplish blue to vivid violet.
5. n. A reddish or cinnamon-colored variety of transparent zircon, used as a gemstone.
6. n. A blue precious stone, perhaps the sapphire, known in antiquity.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An ornamental bulbous plant of the genus Hyacinthus (H. orientalis), natural order Liliaceæ. It is a native of the Levant, and grows in abundance about Aleppo and Bagdad. The root is a tunicated bulb; the leaves are broad and green; the scape is erect, bearing numerous often drooping bell-shaped flowers of almost all colors, and both single- and double-flowered. The hyacinth appears first to have been cultivated as a garden-flower by the Dutch about the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was introduced into England about the end of that century, and is now one of the most popular of cultivated bulbous plants. [The so-called yellow sickness of the hyacinth is produced by a parasitic bacterium which occurs as yellow slimy masses in the vessels. “In the resting bulb the bacteria are confined to the vascular bundles of the bulb-scales; at flowering time they are found also in the leaves, and not in the vessels only, but in the parenchyma also, where they fill the intercellular spaces, [and] destroy the cells.” (De Bary, Comp. Morph. and Biol., p. 482.)]
2. n. By transfer, a plant of some other genus. The California hyacinth is a plant of the liliaceous genus Brodiæa; the Cape hyacinth, Scilla corymbosa and S. brachyphylla; the fair-haired hyacinth, Muscari comosum; the grape-hyacinth, or globe-hyacinth, the genus Muscari; the lily-hyacinth, Scilla Lilio-Hyacinthus; the Missouri hyacinth, a plant of either of the genera Hesperanthus and Brodiæa; the hyacinth of Peru, Scilla Peruviana; the star-hyacinth, Scilla amœna; the starch-hyacinth, Muscari racemosum; the tassel-hyacinth, Muscari comosum; the wild hyacinth, Camassia (Scilla) Fraseri.
3. n. Among the ancients, a gem of bluish-violet color, supposed to be the sapphire.
4. n. In modern usage, a gem of a reddish-orange color which is a variety of the mineral zircon. Some varieties of garnet and topaz also receive this name.
5. n. In heraldry, the tincture tenney or tawny when blazoning is done by colors of precious stones. See blazon.
6. n. In ornithology, a purple gallinule, as of the genus Ionornis or Porphyrio; a sultan.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any bulbous plant of the genus Hyacinthus, native to the Mediterranean and South Africa.
2. n. A variety of zircon, ranging in color from brown, orange, reddish-brown and yellow.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A bulbous plant of the genus Hyacinthus, bearing beautiful spikes of fragrant flowers. Hyacinthus orientalis is a common variety.
2. n. A plant of the genus Camassia (Camassia Farseri), called also Eastern camass; wild hyacinth.
3. n. The name also given to Scilla Peruviana, a Mediterranean plant, one variety of which produces white, and another blue, flowers; -- called also, from a mistake as to its origin, Hyacinth of Peru.
4. n. (Min.) A red variety of zircon, sometimes used as a gem. See Zircon.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of numerous bulbous perennial herbs
2. n. a red transparent variety of zircon used as a gemstone