Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A stout erect Australian shrub, Telopea speciosissima, also T. oreades, of the Proteaceæ, bearing dense heads, some 3 inches broad, of brilliant crimson flowers. It is sometimes grown in greenhouses, but is not easily cultivated.
  • noun A variety of the common camellia, with flowers resembling those of Anemone; anemone-flowered camellia.

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

  • noun Any of several species of plants in the genus Telopea, native to southeastern Australia.
  • noun A Y-shaped steel fencing post or stake

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

  • noun tall shrub of eastern Australia having oblanceolate to obovate leaves and red flowers in compact racemes
  • noun straggling shrub with narrow leaves and conspicuous red flowers in dense globular racemes

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Dharug warada.

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Examples

  • I bought one the flower called the waratah while I was there and should have bought two or three of the other designs.

    DesignerBlog Will 2009

  • I bought one the flower called the waratah while I was there and should have bought two or three of the other designs.

    Archive 2009-07-01 Will 2009

  • Bessie, said that she would be back soon; standing under the portico of the Post Office, surrounded by the flower sellers with their bunches of exuberant waratah, feathery wattle and sweet, sober-looking boronia, she let her mind travel back to Lashnagar and the acrid smoke of the green-wood fires, the pungency of the fish, the sharp tang of the salt winds pushed the heavy perfume of flowers aside.

    Captivity M. Leonora Eyles 1924

  • That is exciting enough to take attention away even from the oysters, for the waratah, the handsomest wildflower of the world, is becoming rare around the cities.

    Peeps At Many Lands: Australia Frank Fox 1917

  • Carried thus over the shoulder of an eager, flushed child, the waratah suggests another idea: it represents exactly the thyrsus of the Bacchanals of ancient legends.

    Peeps At Many Lands: Australia Frank Fox 1917

  • The waratah is of a brilliant red colour, growing single and stately on a high stalk.

    Peeps At Many Lands: Australia Frank Fox 1917

  • The waratah is not at all a dainty, fragile flower, but a solid mass of bloom like the vegetable cauliflower; indeed, if you imagine a cauliflower of a vivid red colour, about the size of a pear and the shape of a heart, growing on a stalk six feet high, you will have some idea of the waratah.

    Peeps At Many Lands: Australia Frank Fox 1917

  • An introduction to an Australian home -- Off to a picnic -- The wattle, the gum, the waratah -- The joys of the forest.

    Peeps At Many Lands: Australia Frank Fox 1917

  • IT has been the state's floral emblem since 1962 but, with the stroke of an artist's pen, Nathan Rees has replaced the waratah with the national flower of India.

    Daily Telegraph | Top Stories 2009

  • Neither Frank Sartor nor Graham Richardson reached quite these dizzy oratorical heights on the witness stand in Rooms 814-5 this week (and yes, two rooms were needed), one floor up from Parliament's waratah-ugly fountain.

    unknown title 2009

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