Definitions

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

  • noun A plant having compound leaves with three small leaflets, especially a clover or wood sorrel.
  • noun The compound leaf of one of these plants.
  • noun A representation of one of these plants or leaves, used as a national emblem of Ireland.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A plant with trifoliate leaves: the national emblem of Ireland.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A trifoliate plant used as a national emblem by the Irish. The legend is that St. Patrick once plucked a leaf of it for use in illustrating the doctrine of the trinity.

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

  • noun The trefoil leaf of any small clover, especially Trifolium repens, or such a leaf from a clover-like plant.
  • noun Any of several small plants, forms of clover, with trefoil leaves, especially Trifolium repens.

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

  • noun Eurasian plant with heart-shaped trifoliate leaves and white purple-veined flowers
  • noun creeping European clover having white to pink flowers and bright green leaves; naturalized in United States; widely grown for forage
  • noun clover native to Ireland with yellowish flowers; often considered the true or original shamrock

Etymologies

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

[Irish Gaelic seamróg, diminutive of seamar, clover, from Middle Irish semar.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Irish seamrog, diminutive of seamar ("clover").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Though not the official symbol of the Irish Republic (the Harp) a very popular symbol. Legend has it that St. Patrick used the shamrock with its three leaves on one stalk to illustrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity when he was converting the natives to Christianity.

    February 19, 2008

  • Outrage! I demand a realrock!

    January 16, 2010