Definitions

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

  • noun A poisonous Eurasian plant (Hyoscyamus niger) in the nightshade family, having a strong odor, sticky leaves, and funnel-shaped greenish-yellow flowers. It is a source of hyoscyamine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A plant of the genus Hyoscyamus, natural order Solanaceæ.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A plant of the genus Hyoscyamus (Hyoscyamus niger). All parts of the plant are poisonous, and the leaves are used for the same purposes as belladonna. It is poisonous to domestic fowls; whence the name. Called also, stinking nightshade, from the fetid odor of the plant. See hyoscyamus.

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

  • noun A poisonous plant, Hyoscyamus niger, used sometimes as a drug that causes at least hallucinations, dilated pupils, restlessness, and flushed skin.
  • noun Any other plant of the genus Hyoscyamus.

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

  • noun poisonous fetid Old World herb having sticky hairy leaves and yellow-brown flowers; yields hyoscyamine and scopolamine

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From hen + bane.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word henbane.

Examples

  • Celebrity (their word, he means nothing to me) chef Antony Worrall Thompsonis quoted in a magazine interview about watercress and other wild foods saying that the weed henbane is "great in salads".

    Media Maxine 2009

  • Celebrity (their word, he means nothing to me) chef Antony Worrall Thompsonis quoted in a magazine interview about watercress and other wild foods saying that the weed henbane is "great in salads".

    August 2008 Maxine 2008

  • Celebrity (their word, he means nothing to me) chef Antony Worrall Thompsonis quoted in a magazine interview about watercress and other wild foods saying that the weed henbane is "great in salads".

    Waiter, there's poison in my soup Maxine 2008

  • Celebrity (their word, he means nothing to me) chef Antony Worrall Thompsonis quoted in a magazine interview about watercress and other wild foods saying that the weed henbane is "great in salads".

    Waiter, there's poison in my soup Maxine 2008

  • According to the BBC: "Healthy & Organic Living magazine's website has now issued an urgent warning that" henbane is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten ".

    Media Maxine 2009

  • According to the BBC: "Healthy & Organic Living magazine's website has now issued an urgent warning that" henbane is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten ".

    Waiter, there's poison in my soup Maxine 2008

  • According to the BBC: "Healthy & Organic Living magazine's website has now issued an urgent warning that" henbane is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten ".

    August 2008 Maxine 2008

  • According to the BBC: "Healthy & Organic Living magazine's website has now issued an urgent warning that" henbane is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten ".

    Waiter, there's poison in my soup Maxine 2008

  • Do you know when I was ill I was made to take henbane, which is a drug that has the power to make one's eyes magnify like a microscope.

    Plays: Comrades; Facing Death; Pariah; Easter August Strindberg 1880

  • 17H21NO4, extracted from plants such as henbane and used primarily as a mydriatic and sedative, and to treat nausea and prevent motion sickness.

    Word of the Day 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Hyoscyamus niger

    August 1, 2007

  • "At Bethlehem Hospital Crippen added a new drug to his basket, hydrobromide of hyoscine, derived from an herb of the nightshade family, Hyoscyamus niger, known more commonly as henbane."

    —Erik Larson, Thunderstruck (New York: Crown Publishers, 2006), 33

    More on mydriatic.

    July 7, 2009