Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various mostly tropical herbs, shrubs, and trees of the genus Mimosa, having globular heads of small flowers with protruding stamens and usually bipinnate, compound leaves that are often sensitive to touch or light.
- n. See silk tree.
- n. A drink consisting of champagne and orange juice.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A large genus of leguminous plants of the suborder Mimoseæ and the tribe Eumimoseæ, characterized by a legume with entire or jointed valves which break away from a narrow persistent placenta. The plants are either herbs, erect or climbing shrubs, or sometimes trees, and are often prickly. The leaves are almost always bipinnate, but rarely there are none, or the expanded petiole (phyllodium) takes the place of the leaf; and in many species the leaves are sensitive, closing when touched. The flowers are small and sessile, usually having the stamens very much longer than the corolla; they are arranged in globular heads or in cylindrical spikes. About 280 species have been described, natives of the warmer parts of America and Africa, of tropical Asia, and of the Mascarene Islands. Many are cultivated, the most common being the sensitive-plant or humble-plant of hothouses, M. pudica, which is a branching annual, one or two feet in height, having a great many small leaflets, all highly sensitive when touched. M. myriadenia is a woody climber of tropical America, and is remarkable for the great height which it attains, ascending to the tops of the tallest trees.
- n. [lowercase] A plant of this genus.
- n. Same as thiazol yellow.
Wiktionary
- n. botany A plant belonging to the genus Mimosa usually found in tropical climates, their leaves are usually prickly and sensitive to touch or light, and have small white or pink flowers.
- n. Silk tree or the pink siris.
- n. Acacia.
- n. A cocktail consisting of champagne and orange juice.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A genus of leguminous plants, containing many species, and including the sensitive plants (Mimosa sensitiva, and Mimosa pudica).
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various tropical shrubs or trees of the genus Mimosa having usually yellow flowers and compound leaves
- n. evergreen Australasian tree having white or silvery bark and young leaves and yellow flowers
- n. a mixed drink containing champagne and orange juice
Etymologies
- From New Latin mimosa, from Latin mimus ("mime") (Wiktionary)
- New Latin Mīmōsa, genus name, from Latin mīmus, mime (from the plant's apparent mimicry of animal reactions), from Greek mīmos. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Wait a minute ... a mimosa is a morning drink, right?”
“The Mimosa tree pictured and described here, or what they call mimosa in the southeastern US is not the same mimosa that people are familiar with in Europe and the Middle East.”
“We're drunk at noon, thanks to a great little concoction called a mimosa that, though not strong enough to suit a thirty-fifth birthday, is served with brunch at Edward's on King Avenue.”
“Since we're talking bubbly, and a morning wedding, a mimosa is another option.”
The Huffington Post: Mary Orlin: What to Drink While You Watch the Royal Wedding
“Presently, while hunting for insects in short mimosa tangle up to the knee, I disturbed a strange-looking animal, about the size of a sheep, brownish colour, long tail, short legs, feline in aspect and movement, but quite strange to me.”
“I am considering calling the mimosa perfume Acacia.”
“Species such as A. dealbata, known as mimosa by florists, A. albida and A. tortilis, are valued as ornamentals while A. farnesiana and A. dealbata are used in the production of base oils for perfumes.”
“Because of its prickles the Boers call the mimosa the "wait-a-bit" thorn, but there was no thought of waiting a bit among the 12th Lancers at the Berea, when they charged the savage Basutos and captured their chief Moshesh.”
“The mimosa is a perennial that's part tree / part shrub that's hardy in zones 6-9.”
“Upon closer inspection I discovered that what Pantone embraces as a mimosa is not a true mimosa, which is a legume, like beans, but rather the namesake of their vaunted yellow is a branch of the temperate and thorny Acacia family tree, specifically, Acacia dealbata, an import to America from Australia and Asia.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mimosa’.
-
color (yellow)
tiara's color lists rebuilt :)
( visual, colors, yellow, descriptive, randomness )yellow, Yellow, Cloud, Straw/Stramineous, Peach, Apricot/Ibis, Lemon, Butter, Mustard, Meline/Canary, Gold(Metallic, Web and 405 more...
-
food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
-
touch
palp, tactile, brush, abut, bepaint, tinct, soupcon, graze, stroke, allude, nudge, epicritic and 67 more...
-
Cocktails: Drink Up. The Night is Young!
Have some liquor to help the orange juice go down.
zombie, yellow bird, white russian, whiskey sour, vodka tonic, tom collins, tom and jerry, toasted almond, tequila sunrise, stinger, spritzer, sloe gin fizz and 62 more...
-
mother earth inspired
taxonomy, botany, orchidaceae, arboraceous, bosky, myrtle, magnoliophyta, stamen, gametophyte, hepatic, liverwort, thallus and 7 more...
-
♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
-
Color Words for Shoes
Vendors can get oddly creative.
amaranth, brindle, iguana, slate black, madder brown, bison, pinecone, seal brown, forest night, burnt orange, monument, beet red and 399 more...
-
dharma66's list
words that pique my interest either by meaning, pronunciation, or spelling, and words that otherwise tickle my fancy!!
pique, elusive, serendipity, nefarious, redundant, pseudoscientific, obsequious, flack, quandary, impervious, perchance, translucent and 168 more...
-
kimo2000's Words
pakalolo, miliated, voodoo, vindaloo, hacienda, acquiesce, addlepated, olio, akimbo, apropos, oogenesis, arugula and 181 more...
-
Trees!
mahogany, sequoia, balsa, sandalwood, tamarind, balsam, eucalyptus, birch, willow, buttonwood, evergreen, loblolly and 501 more...
-
Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
-
snickclunk's Words
bespoke, freshet, coquette, lath, victrola, feckless, viridian, lariat, sargasso, sobriquet, grift, sophistry and 134 more...
-
the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
-
Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
-
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...
-
botello360's list
ruminate, steel, bifurcation, arrivederci, portage, tactile, ruminant, rift, anecdotage, diacritic, cud, hull and 399 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mimosa.

duckbill "One night, she managed to deceive the vicious vigilance of her family. In a nervous and slender-leaved mimosa grove at the back of their villa we found a perch on the ruins of a low stone wall."
- Nabokov, Lolita Feb 28, 2011
fbharjo sensitive to touch Oct 22, 2010
nycanthro In Spanish, it means "affectionate" (feminine form). It's used to describe a dog who nuzzles or licks a lot, for example. The verb "mimar" means to pamper or spoil. But I think the drink is related to the Brazilian Portuguese word for a tangerine-like citrus fruit. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm no help. Had one too many mimosas tonight. Feb 27, 2009