saffron

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A corm-producing plant (Crocus sativus) native to the Old World, having purple or white flowers with orange stigmas.
2. n. The dried aromatic stigmas of this plant, used to color foods and as a cooking spice and dyestuff.
3. n. A moderate or strong orange yellow to moderate orange.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A product consisting of the dried stigmas of the flowers of the autumnal crocus, Crocus sativus. The true saffron of commerce is now mostly hay saffron—that is, it consists of the loose stigmas uncaked. The product of over four thousand flowers is required to make an ounce. It has a sweetish aromatic odor, a warm pungent bitter taste, and a deep orange color. In medicine it was formerly deemed highly stimulant, antispasmodic, and even narcotic; it was esteemed by the ancients and by the Arabians; and on the continent of Europe it is still much used as an emmenagogue. Experiments, however, have shown that it possesses little activity. It is also used to color confectionery, and in Europe and India is largely employed as a condiment. Saffron yields to water and alcohol about three fourths of its weight in an orange-red extract, which has been largely used in painting and dyeing, but in the latter use is mostly replaced by much cheaper substitutes.
2. n. The plant which produces saffron, a low bul-bous herb, Crocus sativus, the autumnal crocus. The saffron resembles the ordinary spring crocus. It has handsome purple flowers, the perianth funnel-shaped with a long slender tube, the style with its three stigmas, which are over an inch long, hanging out on one side. It is thought to be a native of Greece and the Levant, its wild original being perhaps a form of C. Cartwrightianus. It is grown for its commercial produce in parts of southern Europe, especially in Spain, and in Asia Minor, Persia, Cashmere, and China.
3. Having the color given by an infusion of saffron-flowers, somewhat orange-yellow, less brilliant than chrome.
4. To tinge with saffron; make yellow; gild; give color or flavor to.

Wiktionary

1. n. The saffron crocus plant, Crocus sativus.
2. n. A seasoning made from the stigma of the saffron plant.
3. n. A dye made from the stigma of the saffron plant.
4. n. An orange-yellow colour. The color of a lion.
5. adj. Having a orange-yellow colour.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A bulbous iridaceous plant (Crocus sativus) having blue flowers with large yellow stigmas. See crocus.
2. n. The aromatic, pungent, dried stigmas, usually with part of the stile, of the Crocus sativus. Saffron is used in cookery, and in coloring confectionery, liquors, varnishes, etc., and was formerly much used in medicine.
3. n. An orange or deep yellow color, like that of the stigmas of the Crocus sativus.
4. adj. Having the color of the stigmas of saffron flowers; deep orange-yellow.
5. v. To give color and flavor to, as by means of saffron; to spice.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a shade of yellow tinged with orange
2. n. Old World crocus having purple or white flowers with aromatic pungent orange stigmas used in flavoring food
3. n. dried pungent stigmas of the Old World saffron crocus