Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several low-growing plants of the genus Stellaria, having opposite leaves and small, white, star-shaped flowers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One of several plants of the chickweed or starwort genus, Stellaria. The proper stitchwort is S. Holostea, the greater stitchwort, locally called allbone, break-bones, shirt-buttons, snap-jack, etc., a pretty Old World species with an erect slender stem and starry white flowers. The name alludes to its reputed virtue for the cure of stitch in the side, or, according to one old work, to its use for curing the sting of venomous reptiles (Prior). S. graminea is in England the lesser stitchwort. In the United States S. longifolia, a plant of similar habit, is named long-leaved stitchwort. The name is sometimes extended, in books, to the whole genns.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. See stichwort.
WordNet 3.0
- n. low-growing north temperate herb having small white star-shaped flowers; named for its alleged ability to ease sharp pains in the side
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English sticwyrt, agrimony : stice, stich (from its alleged ability to cure sharp pains in the side); see stitch + wyrt, plant; see wort1.
Examples
“In the parish lanes, sunlit banks of red campion, white stitchwort, bluebells and ferns are dusty from earth eroded by burrowing rabbits and stirred up by traffic.”
“The line between Edge Wood and recently cultivated fields was white with cow parsley, stitchwort and wild garlic.”
“Bank of bluebells and stitchwort along the edge of a wood.....”
“The brilliant white flowers of stitchwort form drifts along hedgerows and verges....”
“The sudden blue of jonquil jumps out of the trees, against pure white strata of stitchwort.”
“As soon as the wind gets up, the insects disperse into the wide clearing of bracken, bluebells, stitchwort, foxgloves and saplings of silver birch before the cabin.”
“On rocky and gravelly beaches there are gravel sedge Carex glareosa, sea plantain Plantago maritima, Greenland scurvygrass Cochlearia groenlandica and low stitchwort Stellaria humifusa.”
“It was rich with lupin, honeysuckle, campions, and ragged robin; bed straw, hops, and wild clematis twined and hung among its branches, and all along its ditch border the starry stitchwort lifted its childish faces, and chorused in lines and masses.”
“The trees were all dusted with the green spangles of high spring, the hedges were full of stitchwort and campion and the woods of blue hyacinths and purple orchid; and everywhere there was a great noise of birds — thrushes, blackbirds, robins, finches, and many more — and in one warm corner of the park some bracken was unrolling, and there was a leaping and rushing of fallow deer.”
“They were now on the high uplands by the coast, driving between the beautiful banks, which were starred with primroses and stitchwort and red dead-nettle and a dozen other bright and tender-hued firstlings of the year.”
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 85, January, 1875
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘stitchwort’.
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Worts and all
I have in mind the worts associated with a green thumb rather than a green beer - but as you can see by the name, I'll accept anything you have to offer.
butterwort, spiderwort, quillwort, woundwort, nipplewort, bellwort, liverwort, milkwort, water pennywort, navelwort, toothwort, wort and 116 more...
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The Worts
Maybe I'm just hallucinating that there isn't a list for this botanical category yet...
mugwort, starwort, stitchwort, woundwort, pondwort, sweetwort, liverwort, spleenwort, toothwort, lungwort, adderwort, worrywort and 9 more...
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