Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In botany, having three leaves or leaflets, as many species of Trifolium; trifoliate or trifoliolate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of a plant, having three leaves.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It is believed that Patrick used the three-leaved clover to teach the concept of the trinity or three-in-one male deity God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to his Irish converts.

    History of St. Patrick's Day 2010

  • The shamrock three-leaved clover originally represented the maiden, mother, and crone stages of the female deity in the Celtic tradition.

    History of St. Patrick's Day 2010

  • High on the cliffs, particularly on north-facing slopes, there are a number of alpine plants, including purple saxifrage Saxifraga oppositifolia, tufted saxifrage Saxifraga caespitosa, the fern Polystichum lonchitis and the three-leaved rush Juncus trifidus.

    Kvarken Archipelago High Coast, Finland and Sweden 2008

  • Pixy knew by the change of tone that peace had again spread its blessed wings over the "three-leaved clover," and to show his approbation he fawned upon all three with impartial effusiveness.

    Pixy's Holiday Journey George Lang

  • The tulip has a tendency to produce double flowers: one specimen seen with a regular three-leaved perianth, eight stamina, and four carpellary ovary, angles opposite the outer perianth leaves; the upper leaf or bract has a tendency to become petaloid.

    Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries William Griffith

  • Physicians skilled in magic applied three seeds of three-leaved grass to tertian ague, and four to a quartian.

    The Mysteries of All Nations Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together With Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales James Grant

  • Then there were swamps set thick with dingy-leaved alders, where the three-leaved arum and the skunk's-cabbage grew broad and succulent, -- shelving down into black boggy pools here and there, at the edge of which the green frog, stupidest of his tribe, sat waiting to be victimized by boy or snapping-turtle long after the shy and agile leopard-frog had taken the six-foot spring that plumped him into the middle of the pool.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 28, February, 1860 Various

  • There were three boys in the same class in the polytechnic school in the mountainous Odenwald country, in Hesse Darmstadt, who were such great friends and inseparable companions that the other pupils named them "the three-leaved clover."

    Pixy's Holiday Journey George Lang

  • This ball is finished by a cover of thin leather, cut in the form of a three-leaved clover and neatly sewed on with a waxed thread.

    Healthful Sports for Boys Alfred Rochefort

  • Poison (trifoliolate, or _three-leaved_) ivy resembles Virginia Creeper, and all nurses and caretakers should be able to recognize it.

    The Mother and Her Child William S. Sadler

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