Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various plants, such as black cohosh, rattlesnake master, sanicle, or wild ginger, having roots reputed to cure snakebite.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A name of numerous plants of different genera, whose root either has a snake-like appearance, or has sometimes been regarded as a remedy for snakes' bites, or both. Several have a medicinal value. Compare rattlesnake-master and rattlesnake-root.
- n. The black cohosh, Cimicifuga racemosa. whose root is an officinal remedy used in chorea, and formerly for rheumatism.
- n. A general name for the species of Liatris: so called from the button-shaped corms, or from the button-like heads of some species, and from their reputed remedial property. (See cut under Liatris.) L. spicata, also called gay-feather, is said to have diuretic and other properties.
Wiktionary
- n. Any member of the genus Ageratina of perennials and rounded shrubs from the sunflower family, growing mainly in the warmer regions of the Americas.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) Any one of several plants of different genera and species, most of which are (or were formerly) reputed to be efficacious as remedies for the bites of serpents; also, the roots of any of these.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various North American plants of the genus Liatris having racemes or panicles of small discoid flower heads
- n. a plant of the genus Sanicula having palmately compound leaves and unisexual flowers in panicled umbels followed by bristly fruit; reputed to have healing powers
Etymologies
- snake + root (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Also goes by the name snakeroot and Indian ginger.”
“Numerous botanicals indigenous to the Colonies were widely employed in medicine of the period, and certain ones such as snakeroot (seneka), which was widely found growing in Virginia, would have been very scarce had not an adequate supply been immediately at hand.”
“Flora can languish or become dormant, like the shade-tolerant perennial snakeroot (Cimicifuga racemosa).”
The Washington Post: Follow the Basic Principles for Landscape Planning: Green Scene
“Keep up a perspiration till the pain is relieved by giving a teaspoonful of compound tincture of Virginia snakeroot; also a warm infusion of pleurisy root.”
Dr. Jon LaPook: Steve Martin and the Latest Mammography Recommendations
“The Aronia melancarpa ‘Viking’ black berries are still hanging on while the white snakeroot, Ageratina altissima climbs to the sky just to the left of the ironweed, before unclasping its buds for insect delights.”
“That snakeroot self sowed in the self sowing garden here so I let it grow.”
“There are natives in our midst, including the white snakeroot, Ageratina altissima…”
“The snakeroot gets really large, but I let a couple grow to maturity for the fall presence.”
“(This is a plant that, the story goes, killed the mother of Abraham Lincoln after she drank milk from a cow that had consumed the snakeroot.)”
Restoring Good Order to a Disturbed Land: Introductory Thoughts
“I remembered the names of boneset and snakeroot, both in bloom right now, and knew them one from the other, and maybe because of that I found this other road, and wandered quite away from everything.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘snakeroot’.
-
Putting down roots
root beer, crinkleroot, root canal, root cellar, roothold, rootlet, rootworm, Stephen Root, square root, snakeroot, arrowroot, scrootch and 64 more...
-
The Garden on Ryons Street
I spent a few seasons doing gardening work for a former English professor. This is just a list of some of the friends I made in her garden. (Some of these plants spent the winter inside, of course.)
filipendula, Tradescantia, eglantine, Ispahan, Comtesse de Murinais, Crested Moss, rugosa rose, goutweed, creeping charlie, buttercup, lilac, cedar and 97 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for snakeroot.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.