Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A name given to various plants the flowers of which have an offensive carrion-like odor, especially to species of the genus Stapelia and to Smilax herbacea.
Etymologies
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Examples
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"Marriage is that!" said he to a friend, -- and held up a carrion-flower.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865 Various
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Strange that so close an observer as Burroughs or Thoreau should not have credited the carrion-flower with being something more intelligent than a mere repellent freak!
Wild Flowers Worth Knowing Neltje Blanchan 1891
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The flesh-fly laying its eggs on the carrion-flower is only a striking instance of the mistakes all instincts are liable to, never more markedly than in the inherited tendency to fits of frenzied excitement: the feeling is frequently excited by the wrong object, and explodes at inopportune moments.
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Smilax herbacea (carrion-flower), not uncommon both years.
The Maine Woods 1858
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So the putrid smell of the stapelia, or carrion-flower, allures the large flesh-fly to deposit its young worms on its beautiful petals, which perish there for want of nourishment.
Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766
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