Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A plant of ivy: formerly hung over tavern-doors in England to advertise good wine. The ivy was sacred to Bacchus.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • He looked sideways out of his beard, as if it were an ivy-bush.

    Reprinted Pieces 2007

  • "Then noblemen's chimneys used to smoke, and not their noses; Englishmen without were not Blackamoores within, for then Tobacco was an Indian, unpickt and unpiped, -- now made the common ivy-bush of luxury, the curtaine of dishonesty, the proclaimer of vanity, the drunken colourer of Drabby solacy."

    Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce E. R. Billings

  • If the vintner's nose [24] be at door, it is a sign sufficient, but the absence of this is supplied by the ivy-bush: the rooms are ill breathed like the drinkers that have been washed well over night, and are smelt-to fasting next morning; not furnished with beds apt to be defiled, but more necessary implements, stools, table, and a chamber-pot.

    Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters John Earle

  • Across the way hung a hollow ivy-bush, through which ran a long branch of wild apple.

    The Spring of Joy: A Little Book of Healing 1917

  • And an old boy, at his first appearance, with all the gravity of his ivy-bush about him, is sure to draw on him the eyes and chirping of the whole town volery; amongst which there will not be wanting some birds of prey, that will presently be on the wing for him.

    Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Sections 91-100 1909

  • A yellow-faced girl brat with eyes like an owl's in an ivy-bush, and with a voice like a very peacock's.

    A Lady of Quality 1896

  • A yellow-faced girl brat, with eyes like an owl's in an ivy-bush, and with a voice like a very peacocks.

    A Lady of Quality Frances Hodgson Burnett 1886

  • "He is not bound to find ears as well as arguments," retorted the owl, and he drew back into his ivy-bush.

    Jackanapes, Daddy Darwin's Dovecot and Other Stories Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing 1863

  • "Hoot, hoot!" cried the church owl, pushing his head out of the ivy-bush.

    Jackanapes, Daddy Darwin's Dovecot and Other Stories Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing 1863

  • When he had pulled it down over the end of his nose, and peeped through it, like an owl out of an ivy-bush, he might be supposed to part with it voluntarily, and not because he was laughed at.

    The Crofton Boys Harriet Martineau 1839

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