Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various plants of the genus Polygala, having variously colored, irregular flowers with two petaloid sepals.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A plant of the genus Polygala, formerly imagined to increase the milk of nurses. In Great Britain the common milkwort is P. vulgaris— also called cross-flower, gangflower, and procession- and rogation-flower, in allusion to its time of blooming and use.
- n. A seaside plant, Glaux maritima, with the same supposed property. Also called sea-milkwort.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of more than 500 species of flowering plants of the genus Polygala that are used as a food source by the larvae of some members of the Lepidoptra species.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A genus of plants (Polygala) of many species. The common European Polygala vulgaris was supposed to have the power of producing a flow of milk in nurses.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various plants of the genus Polygala
Etymologies
- From the belief that it increases human lactation. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Of special interest are spp. of Himalayan origin such as milkwort (Lancea tibetica) and Kobresia moujr.”
“Lying on the dry brown turf, he discovered sprigs of tiny purple milkwort and pink spots of lousewort.”
“The apothecary would rearrange his bottles, moving the powdered mandrake root to the place where the tinctures of Solomon's seal and milkwort had stood.”
“On the road sides you see broom, heather, heath, harebells, along with gorse and bracken with milkwort nestling underneath: crested dog's tail and sheep's fescue are common grasses, while spurrey, knotwood, corn marigold, are a few of the numerous weeds in the arable fields.”
“The dry, elastic turf glows, not only with its flowers, but with those of the wild thyme, the clear blue milkwort, the yellow asphodel, and that curious plant the _sundew_, with its drops of inexhaustible liquor sparkling in the fiercest sun like diamonds.”
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 262, July 7, 1827
“Or milkwort and sorrel, thyme, harebell and meadow-sweet”
“All along the road in a light wind you will get the scent of bed-straw and thyme and clover from the green border of the road, and in the short down grass find the plants that love chalk-ground, like the little blue milkwort, which spreads like a film over the higher slopes of the ridge in summer.”
“Clover-like heads of the milkwort decorate the bank, and among the mosses around the bases of the trees the little shin-leaf lifts its pretty white racemes.”
“A stretch of grassy ground, which slopes down to the river's brink, is gemmed with the thick purple clusters of the milkwort, which shines among the grass as the early blossoms of the clover used to do when the summer was young.”
“And, turning on his face, he rested his chin on his hands, and stared at the short grass where the little blue milkwort was growing ....”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘milkwort’.
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milk phrases/words
how milk is used
it's no use cryin..., milk abscess, milk ambry, milk and molasses, milk and roses, milk arrowroot, milk ass, milk bag, milk bank, milk bar, milk-bar cowboy, milk-barred and 314 more...
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Worts and all
I have in mind the worts associated with a green thumb rather than a green beer - but as you can see by the name, I'll accept anything you have to offer.
butterwort, spiderwort, quillwort, woundwort, nipplewort, bellwort, liverwort, milkwort, water pennywort, navelwort, toothwort, wort and 128 more...
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Ambidextrous words
Words with letters a-m in the left half and n-z in the right half (suggested by oroboros on ambidextrous).
ambidextrous, affectuous, glitzy, chatty, memory, dilatory, blindstory, bimanous, aleatory, flirty, cherty, faldistory and 42 more...
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Galactic Milk - words that lead the ...
conjectures on words related to the roots melg- and (ga)lakts-
galaxy, galena, milch, milk, lettuce, lactic, galenious, moojuice, galax, lactalbumin, emulsion, milch cow and 29 more...
Tweets
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