Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various plants of the genus Lysimachia, having usually yellow flowers.
- n. Any of various plants of the genus Lythrum, having purple or white flowers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In botany, the English popular name of several species of plants, chiefly of the genera Lysimachia and Lythrum.
Wiktionary
- n. any of several flowering plants of two different genera, Lythrum (purple loosestrife) or Lysimachia (yellow loosestrife)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The name of several species of plants of the genus Lysimachia, having small star-shaped flowers, usually of a yellow color.
- n. Any species of the genus Lythrum, having purple, or, in some species, crimson flowers.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of numerous herbs and subshrubs of the genus Lythrum
- n. any of various herbs and subshrubs of the genus Lysimachia
Etymologies
- Mistranslation of Latin lȳsimachīa (as if from Greek lusis, loosening + Greek makhē, battle), from Greek lūsimakheios, perhaps after Lūsimakhos, Lysimachos, Greek physician of the fifth or fourth century B.C. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A beautiful example is purple loosestrife, which is good looking but an invasive species here.”
Greening America: One Household at a Time - Talking with Susan Agate and Mike Slutsky
“I mean, it's great that the wolf and deer population would boom, but wouldn't the purple loosestrife boom too?”
“It's a soggy meadow dominated by mosses and plants such as skunk cabbage and Purple loosestrife.”
“Of course the silver flowery embroidery of her dress mingles with the stream and connects with the sprays of white dog rose above; and the purple loosestrife on the bank calls out to the poppies, violets and daisies of her bouquet now scattered on the water.”
“One way to understand Susan Pivar's article is that she's describing how the consequences of letting retailers use recorded music as a loss leader reduced the once-complex ecology of the music business to Bermuda grass, kudzu, purple loosestrife, Ailanthus altissimus, cockroaches, pigeons, and albino sewer alligators.”
Making Light: A music exec's take on the Macmillan/Amazon throwdown
“If you look at it solely in terms of transactions, you'll see that someone who wants purple loosestrife and cockroaches for dinner can get them.”
Making Light: A music exec's take on the Macmillan/Amazon throwdown
“Teresa: ...how the consequences of letting retailers use recorded music as a loss leader reduced the once-complex ecology of the music business to Bermuda grass, kudzu, purple loosestrife, Ailanthus altissimus, cockroaches, pigeons, and albino sewer alligators.”
Making Light: A music exec's take on the Macmillan/Amazon throwdown
““Hello there,” said the girl, offering Cadal Forge the loosestrife.”
“In her right hand she held a bunch of purple loosestrife, still dripping wet; on her left wrist perched a small bright-eyed falcon.”
“I have grown yellow loosestrife, which apparently is not related, in my garden.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘loosestrife’.
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Ponderable Plant Names
List of plant names (common or scientific) that go trippingly off the tongue, are fun to contemplate, expose the wit of the namer, or just plain befuddle.
tongueshape mudmi..., glandular maiden ..., jeweled maiden fern, stately maiden fern, hairy maiden fern, downy maiden fern, widespread maiden..., turkey tangle fog..., yankeeweed, clitoria fragrans, clitoria mariana, tall tumblemustard and 261 more...
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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born2badored's Words
livid, fnordy, grok, bloopy, bokonon, disinformation, psychometrics, trip hop, acid jazz, bauble, dynamic, constant and 91 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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verdure
word garden
botany, flora, flowerage, greenery, herbage, vegetation, verdure, horticulture, husbandry, herb, annual, blossom and 72 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for loosestrife.
yarb The bride and bridegroom were not young, and the stiff movements with which they yet gladly led the dance, and the quiet, tired merriment of their middle-aged friends, gave the occasion a quality of its own; with which the faded purples of the loosestrife and mallows leaning out above the water on the white walls on the island were somehow in harmony.
- Rebecca West, The Judge Jul 29, 2009