Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See graphite.
- n. Any of various plants of the genus Plumbago; leadwort.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Black-lead; graphite. See graphite.
- n. [capitalized] [NL. (Tournefort, 1700).] A genus of plants, the leadworts, of the order Plumbagineæ and tribe Plumbageæ. characterized by a glandular calyx with five short erect teeth, a salver-shaped corolla with slender tube, free stamens, and five styles united into one nearly to the top. The 10 species are natives of warm climates, extending to southern Europe and central Asia. They are usually perennial herbs, with long branches, or partly climbing, bearing alternate clasping leaves, and spikes of blue flowers (or of other colors) at the end of the branches. Several species, bearing the name leadwort, are in common cultivation; another, P. scandens, a trailing white-flowered species, is native to the south of Florida, extending thence to Brazil, and known, like
P. Europæa , as loothwort, from the use to which its caustic leaves and roots are put. P. rosea is used in India to produce blisters.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Same as graphite.
- n. A genus of herbaceous plants with pretty salver-shaped corollas, usually blue or violet; leadwort.
WordNet 3.0
- n. used as a lubricant and as a moderator in nuclear reactors
- n. any plumbaginaceous plant of the genus Plumbago
Etymologies
- Latin plumbāgō, lead ore, from plumbum, lead.
Examples
“Graphite, locally known as plumbago, the only commercial mineral of the country, might be seen in the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy.”
Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
“Here are the magnolia, the laurel, the Japanese medlar, the oleander, the pepper, the bay, the date-palm, a tree called the plumbago, another from the Cape of Good”
The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner
“Carbon, combined with a small quantity of iron, forms a compound called plumbago, or black-lead, of which pencils are made.”
“The pureness of whites in some celebrated old pictures is rather to be attributed to a proper method of using, careful preservation of the work, and in many instances to the introduction of ultramarine or a permanent cold colour into the white -- such as plumbago -- helped also by judicious contrast.”
Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists
“The greatest standby to the amateur gardener should undoubtedly be the blue-flowered shrub known as "plumbago".”
“A few that come to mind — Mertensia virginica Virginia bluebells, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Perennial plumbago, and this little beauty.”
Now showing: Veronica ped. ‘Georgia Blue’ « Sugar Creek Gardens’ Blog
“A few that come to mind — Mertensia virginica Virginia bluebells, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Perennial plumbago, and this little [...]”
Virginia bluebells: a kaleidoscope of spring color « Sugar Creek Gardens’ Blog
“I've got a feeling the BLUE plant in the terracotta pot is a plumbago (is it, Kristin?) ... having a friendly conversation with the RED busy lizzies in the old bucket.”
“So, yes, in blue, I'm sure now it is a plumbago, but the red flowers "dans le seau" (in the bucket) are not busy lizzies - and not geraniums either.”
“So, yes, in blue, I'm sure now it is a plumbago, but the red flowers "dans le seau" in the bucket are not busy lizzies - and not geraniums either.”
Lists
‘plumbago’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
sionnach Back pain induced by sitting unnaturally straight for long periods of time. Nov 16, 2007