Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several eastern North American plants of the genus Cardamine of the mustard family, such as crinkleroot, having fibrous or fleshy rhizomes and palmately divided leaves.
  • noun A Eurasian plant (Lathraea squamata) of the figwort family, having scaly cream-colored or pink stems and pinkish flowers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A plant, Lathræa squamaria, so named from the tooth-like scales on the rootstock and the base of the stem, or according to some from the capsules, which when half-ripe strongly simulate human teeth. Also called clown's lungwort.
  • noun A plant of the genus Dentaria: same as coralwort, 1.
  • noun See Plumbago, 2.
  • noun The shepherd's-purse, Capsella Bursapastoris: an old use.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A plant whose roots are fancied to resemble teeth, as certain plants of the genus Lathræa, and various species of Dentaria. See coralwort.

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

  • noun Any of several species of flowering plants, of the genus Lathraea.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun North American herb with pungent scaly or toothed roots

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the toothlike divisions of the underground stems . Sense 2, from its tooth-shaped scales .]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

tooth +‎ wort

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Examples

  • Hawk and I would push our way into the bush, plucking berries, digging up edible roots such as Indian potatoes and toothwort, pinching the heads from puffball mushrooms, stripping bark from hickory trees, which we boiled, to soften it.

    The Curse of the Wendigo William James Henry 2010

  • Hawk and I would push our way into the bush, plucking berries, digging up edible roots such as Indian potatoes and toothwort, pinching the heads from puffball mushrooms, stripping bark from hickory trees, which we boiled, to soften it.

    The Curse of the Wendigo William James Henry 2010

  • Hawk and I would push our way into the bush, plucking berries, digging up edible roots such as Indian potatoes and toothwort, pinching the heads from puffball mushrooms, stripping bark from hickory trees, which we boiled, to soften it.

    The Curse of the Wendigo William James Henry 2010

  • He put the new bag among the others, taking time to consider the collection: toothwort, columbine, bloodroot.

    Pros and Cons of Wildflower Collection 2009

  • Cut leaf toothwort is out, in the Central Ohio rain.

    Back at the Peach Blossom Café... Ann Althouse 2009

  • He put the new bag among the others, taking time to consider the collection: toothwort, columbine, bloodroot.

    Pros and Cons of Wildflower Collection Marcus Walton 2009

  • Leafless herbs like beechdrops, lavender toothwort, and various bright-flowered small orchids, often without green leaves, were everywhere, growing from the roots of other living plants or their decaying remains.

    The Plains of Passage Auel, Jean M. 1990

  • The toothwort (_dentaria laciniata_) is sometimes known as the pepper-root, and every school boy and girl living near the woods is familiar with the taste of its tubers and the appearance of its cross-shaped flowers.

    Some Spring Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905

  • Pink: -- Spring beauty, toothwort, dog's tooth violet, hepatica.

    Some Spring Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905

  • But she found, among others, "Dutchman's breeches," the funny little white flower that looks like long underwear hanging upside down, and cut-leaved toothwort.

    The Washington Post: National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - washingtonpost.com 2011

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