Definitions

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

  • noun A member of the rose family.
  • noun Any of numerous shrubs or vines of the genus Rosa, having prickly stems and pinnately compound leaves, widely cultivated for their showy, often fragrant flowers.
  • noun The flower of any of these plants.
  • noun Any of various other plants, especially one having similar flowers.
  • noun A dark pink to moderate red.
  • noun An ornament, such as a decorative knot, resembling a rose in form; a rosette.
  • noun A perforated nozzle for spraying water from a hose or sprinkling can.
  • noun A form of gem cut marked by a flat base and a faceted, hemispheric upper surface.
  • noun A gem, especially a diamond, cut in this manner.
  • noun A rose window.
  • noun A compass card or its representation, as on a map.
  • noun That which is marked by favor, success, or ease of execution.
  • adjective Of the color rose.
  • adjective Relating to, containing, or used for roses.
  • adjective Scented or flavored with or as if with roses.
  • idiom (come up roses) To result favorably or successfully.
  • idiom (under the rose) Sub rosa.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To render rose-colored; redden; cause to flush or blush.
  • To perfume as with roses.
  • noun A shrub of the genus Rosa, or its flower, found wild in numerous species, and cultivated from remote antiquity.
  • noun One of various other plants so named from some resemblance to the true rose. See the phrases below.
  • noun A knot of ribbon in the form of a rose, used as an ornamental tie of a hat-band, garter, shoe, etc.
  • noun Figuratively, full flush or bloom.
  • noun A light crimson color. Colors ordinarily called crimson are too dark to receive the name of rose. See II.
  • noun In heraldry, a conventional representation of the flower, composed of five leaves or lobes, or, in other words, a kind of cinquefoil: when the five spaces between the leaves are filled by small pointed leaves representing the calyx, it is said to be barbed. (See barb, n., 8.)
  • noun In arch, and art: A rose-window
  • noun Any ornamental feature or work of decorative character having a circular outline: properly a larger and more important feature or work than a rosette or a circular boss.
  • noun A rosette, as of lace.
  • noun In zoology, a formation suggestive of a rose; a radiating disposition or arrangement of parts; a rosette, as that formed at the parting of feathers on the heads of domestic pigeons of different breeds, or that represented by caruncles about the eyes or beak. Compare rose-comb, under comb, 3.
  • noun A perforated nozle of a pipe, spout, etc., to distribute water in fine shower-like jets; a rose-head; also, a plate similarly perforated covering some aperture.
  • noun An ornamental annular piece of wood or metal surrounding the spindle of a door-lock or a gas-pipe at the point where it passes through a wall or ceiling.
  • noun The disease erysipelas: so named, popularly, from its color.
  • noun In English history, one of the two rival factions, York and Lancastrian. See Wars of the Roses, below.
  • noun A circular card or disk, or a diagram with radiating lines: as, the compass-card or rose of the compass; the barometric rose, which shows the barometric pressure, at any place, in connection with the winds blowing from different points of the compass; a wind-rose.
  • noun In musical instruments like flutes, guitars, dulcimers, and harpsichords, an ornamental device set in the sound-hole of the belly, and often serving as a trade-mark as well as a decoration.
  • noun A form in which precious stones, especially small diamonds, are frequently cut.
  • noun A very small diamond, scarcely more than a splinter, of which as many as 400 are sometimes necessary to make a carat, or 60,000 to make an ounce. These are seldom regularly cut, 6 to 8 facets only being the usual number.
  • noun A rose-mallow, Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis. See shoeblack-plant.
  • noun Same as sage-rose.
  • noun Specifically, the French rose.
  • noun In botany, the order Rosaceæ.
  • noun A St.-John's-wort, Hypericum calycinum. Britten and Holland, Eng. Plant-names. [Prov. Eng.]
  • noun Same as althæa, 2. [U. S.]
  • noun Specifically, Rosa alba, a garden rose, native in the Caucasus.
  • noun See Rœmeria.
  • noun R. sulphurea, the double yellow rose, beautiful in warm climates, native from Asia Minor to Persia.
  • Of an extremely luminous purplish-red color.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English, from Latin rosa.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From rise.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French rose, itself from Latin rosa, from Oscan, from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon) (Aeolic ϝρόδον (wródon)), from Old Persian *wurdi (“flower”) (compare Avestan varǝδa, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dʰo (“sweetbriar”) (compare Old English word ("thornbush"), Latin rubus ("bramble"), Albanian hurdhe ("ivy")).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French rosé ("pinkish").

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Examples

  • “That is the way, young man, ” returned he of the forty years and the dyed whiskers—“The rose has lived the life of a rose—

    Paras. 200–299 1917

  • But what is the meaning of the expression, _a rose in his grace_? if he was a _rose_ of himself, his brother's _grace_ or _favour_ could not degrade him.

    Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • Track the asteroid asteroid 2005 YU55 on the Web: Searches on the term rose to the stratosphere in just one day.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Provider of the peacock and the owl,438 Nur al-Din rose from the séance and stood upon his feet, because the darkness was now fallen and the stars shone out; whereupon quoth the damsel to him,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • J Mendel was awarded the Glamour Award, capping a year in which the label rose to become a first choice for that most coveted of customer: the red-carpet-walker.

    India Inc. 2007

  • The term rose in Daniel's throat, as startling as a second moon, proof that he had been here before, no matter how good a job he'd done of convincing himself otherwise.

    The Tenth Circle Picoult, Jodi, 1966- 2006

  • Sunday, my paladin rose from the grave ... well, came back from hell.

    August 12th, 2002 2002

  • Now, Great Britain rose from the "contemptible army" to something like 14 per cent. of the population before she had compulsory service; and with compulsory service, she has risen to something like 20 per cent.

    The Turning of the Tide of War 1918

  • Christians also designated their religion as “the third kind” of religion, we must nevertheless assume that the term rose as spontaneously to the lips of Christians as of their opponents, since it is unlikely, though not impossible, that the latter borrowed it from Christian literature.

    The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries 1851-1930 1908

  • Both raw and sensuous, it became Hi's signature sound as the label rose to prominence with Mr. Green in the 1970s.

    NYT > Home Page 2010

Comments

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  • A rose by any other name...

    December 2, 2006

  • I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys. The Beloved

    Song of Solomon 2:1

    October 25, 2007

  • "Honeysuckle Rose" by Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, and who knows how many other people... and "Give My Love to Rose" by Johnny Cash.

    February 9, 2008

  • The definition for "rose" shows only the flower meaning, not the past tense of "rise".

    June 25, 2009

  • I remember a scene from the terrific film 'Rain Man', after reading the will.

    "Upset? Why should I be upset? I got the rose bushes didn't I? I definately got the rose bushes. No one else got the rose bushes because I have them. Yes, I definately have the rose bushes."

    July 26, 2009

  • from Latin rosa, probably from ancient Greek rhodon, possibly ultimately from Persian *varda-

    August 31, 2009

  • This video uses rose to mean poo. Repeatedly. Right at the start, again at 1:23, again later on. In fact the full title is 'The Fabulous Story of Poop: In the Name of the Roses'.

    October 18, 2010

  • Savon19, did you read definition #18?

    October 18, 2010