saxifrage

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This deceitful appearance is caused by a small plant resembling saxifrage, which is abundant, growing in large patches on a species of crumbling moss.

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Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Any of numerous herbs of the genus Saxifraga, having small, variously colored flowers and leaves that often form a basal rosette.

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Examples (50)

  • The ice-plant, which is also called a saxifrage, may now be seen in many a garden to which it has been brought from the Kerry mountains, and it is known as London Pride. —  A Child's Book of Saints
  • They had their own company and their own stories, into which they had no temptation to drag an interloper Nelly, in her desolation standing apart in the centre of the wholesome, happy family circle, grew to have her peculiar habits and occupations, her self-contained life into which none of the others could penetrate V.--NELLY'S NEW PASTIMES The sea-pink and the rock saxifrage were making the rugged rocks gay, the bluebell was nodding on the moor, and Nelly had not died, as she foolishly fancied she should. —  Girlhood and Womanhood The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes
  • They said that they and some of their comrades had been a long way from home gathering saxifrage, and that they had met one of the young ladies of the town. —  A Dozen Ways Of Love
  • I took it for a saxifrage, but could find nothing under that head which exactly answered to it. —  Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 427 Volume 17, New Series, March 6, 1852
  • It was, I at last discovered, the golden saxifrage (_Chrysosplenium oppositifolium_) or opposite-leaved sengreen, nearly allied to the saxifrages, and of the natural order saxifrage, but not one of them. —  Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 427 Volume 17, New Series, March 6, 1852
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin (herba) saxifraga, maidenhair fern, feminine of Latin saxifragus, rock-breaking (from its being found growing in rock crevices) : saxum, rock; see sek- in Indo-European roots + frangere, frag-, to break; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English saxifrage, from Old French (and F.) saxifrage = Spanish saxífraga, saxifragua (vernacularly saxafrax, sasafras, salsafras, etc., later English sassafras) = Portuguese saxifraga, saxifragia = Italian sassifraga, sassifragia, from Latin saxifraga, in full saxifraga herba or saxifragum adiantum, maidenhair; literally ‘stone-breaking’ (so called because supposed to break stones in the bladder); feminine of saxifragus, stone-breaking, from saxum, a stone, rock (prob. from ✓ sac, sec, in secare, cut: see secant, saw), + frangere (✓ frag,) break, = English break: see fragile. Cf. sassafras.
 

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/ˈsæksɪfrədʒ/
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