Definitions

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

  • noun A widely cultivated evergreen climbing plant (Hedera helix) native to Eurasia, having palmately lobed leaves, root-bearing young stems, small green flowers grouped in umbels, and blackish or yellowish berries.
  • noun Any of several other woody, climbing or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera of the Northern Hemisphere.
  • noun Any of various creeping or trailing plants of other genera, such as Boston ivy, ground ivy, or Virginia creeper.
  • noun Poison ivy.
  • noun Informal A university in the Ivy League.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An epiphytic climbing plant of the genus Hedera (H. Helix), natural order Araliaceæ, and the type of the series Hedereæ.
  • noun Ground-pine: chiefly in the compound herb-ivy.
  • To cover with ivy.
  • noun In Australia, the cultivated varieties of Pelargonium peltatum, commonly known as ivy-leaved geraniums, which are there trained over fences and walls, sometimes to a height of 20 or 30 feet, supplanting the English or common ivy in this use. See ivy-leaved geranium.
  • noun The Macquarie Harbor grape, Calacinum adpressum.
  • noun The naturalized Cape or German ivy, Senecio mikanioides. See Senecio, 1.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A plant of the genus Hedera (Hedera helix), common in Europe. Its leaves are evergreen, dark, smooth, shining, and mostly five-pointed; the flowers yellowish and small; the berries black or yellow. The stem clings to walls and trees by rootlike fibers.
  • noun (Bot.) See Virginia creeper.
  • noun (Bot.) a popular name in America for the ivy proper (Hedera helix).
  • noun (Bot.) a creeping plant, with smooth, succulent stems, and fleshy, light-green leaves; a species of Senecio (Senecio scandens).
  • noun (Bot.) Gill (Nepeta Glechoma).
  • noun (Bot.) See Mountain laurel, under Mountain.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the barn owl.
  • noun (Bot.) the ivy plant.
  • noun (Bot.) a climbing plant (Ampelopsis tricuspidata), closely related to the Virginia creeper.
  • noun (Bot.) an American woody creeper (Rhus Toxicodendron), with trifoliate leaves, and greenish-white berries. It is exceedingly poisonous to the touch for most persons.
  • noun [Obs.] to console one's self as best one can.
  • noun a climbing plant of the genus Marcgravia.

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

  • noun Any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera.

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

  • noun Old World vine with lobed evergreen leaves and black berrylike fruits

Etymologies

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

[Middle English ivi, from Old English īfig.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ivi, from Old English īfig, from Proto-Germanic *ibahs (compare West Flemish iefte, Low German Eiloov, Ieloof, German Efeu), from Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)ebʰ- (compare Welsh efwr ‘black elder’, Ancient Greek iphyon ‘plant’).

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