Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various plants in the genus Clivia, native to southern Africa and widely cultivated as ornamentals for their cluster of reddish-orange or yellow flowers borne on a long stalk.

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

  • noun botany Any plant of the genus Clivia, native to southern Africa.

Etymologies

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

[After Lady Charlotte Florentia Clive, (1787–1866), Duchess of Northumberland, in whose conservatory the first specimen of the genus to flower in England was grown.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • a southern African plant of the lily family, with gorgeous orange trumpet-shaped blossoms, named for Charlotte née Clive, Duchess of Northumberland (1787–1866) – I'm sure there's a bit of colonial history there.

    December 8, 2007