Search Result for "sweet william":
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. Eurasian pink widely cultivated for its flat-topped dense clusters of varicolored flowers;
[syn: sweet William, Dianthus barbatus]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Goldfinch \Gold"finch`\, n. [AS. goldfinc. See Gold, and Finch.] (Zool.) (a) A beautiful bright-colored European finch (Carduelis elegans). The name refers to the large patch of yellow on the wings. The front of the head and throat are bright red; the nape, with part of the wings and tail, black; -- called also goldspink, goldie, fool's coat, drawbird, draw-water, thistle finch, and sweet William. (b) The yellow-hammer. (c) A small American finch (Spinus tristis); the thistle bird. [1913 Webster] Note: The name is also applied to other yellow finches, esp. to several additional American species of Spinus. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Sweet \Sweet\, a. [Compar. Sweeter; superl. Sweetest.] [OE. swete, swote, sote, AS. sw[=e]te; akin to OFries. sw[=e]te, OS. sw[=o]ti, D. zoet, G. s["u]ss, OHG. suozi, Icel. saetr, soetr, Sw. s["o]t, Dan. s["o]d, Goth. suts, L. suavis, for suadvis, Gr. ?, Skr. sv[=a]du sweet, svad, sv[=a]d, to sweeten. [root]175. Cf. Assuage, Suave, Suasion.] 1. Having an agreeable taste or flavor such as that of sugar; saccharine; -- opposed to sour and bitter; as, a sweet beverage; sweet fruits; sweet oranges. [1913 Webster] 2. Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense. [1913 Webster] The breath of these flowers is sweet to me. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster] 3. Pleasing to the ear; soft; melodious; harmonious; as, the sweet notes of a flute or an organ; sweet music; a sweet voice; a sweet singer. [1913 Webster] To make his English sweet upon his tongue. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster] 4. Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair; as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion. [1913 Webster] Sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 5. Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] 6. Not changed from a sound or wholesome state. Specifically: (a) Not sour; as, sweet milk or bread. (b) Not state; not putrescent or putrid; not rancid; as, sweet butter; sweet meat or fish. [1913 Webster] 7. Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners. [1913 Webster] Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades? --Job xxxviii. 31. [1913 Webster] Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working. --M. Arnold. [1913 Webster] Note: Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured, sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc. [1913 Webster] Sweet alyssum. (Bot.) See Alyssum. Sweet apple. (Bot.) (a) Any apple of sweet flavor. (b) See Sweet-sop. Sweet bay. (Bot.) (a) The laurel (Laurus nobilis). (b) Swamp sassafras. Sweet calabash (Bot.), a plant of the genus Passiflora (Passiflora maliformis) growing in the West Indies, and producing a roundish, edible fruit, the size of an apple. Sweet cicely. (Bot.) (a) Either of the North American plants of the umbelliferous genus Osmorrhiza having aromatic roots and seeds, and white flowers. --Gray. (b) A plant of the genus Myrrhis (Myrrhis odorata) growing in England. Sweet calamus, or Sweet cane. (Bot.) Same as Sweet flag, below. Sweet Cistus (Bot.), an evergreen shrub (Cistus Ladanum) from which the gum ladanum is obtained. Sweet clover. (Bot.) See Melilot. Sweet coltsfoot (Bot.), a kind of butterbur (Petasites sagittata) found in Western North America. Sweet corn (Bot.), a variety of the maize of a sweet taste. See the Note under Corn. Sweet fern (Bot.), a small North American shrub (Comptonia asplenifolia syn. Myrica asplenifolia) having sweet-scented or aromatic leaves resembling fern leaves. Sweet flag (Bot.), an endogenous plant (Acorus Calamus) having long flaglike leaves and a rootstock of a pungent aromatic taste. It is found in wet places in Europe and America. See Calamus, 2. Sweet gale (Bot.), a shrub (Myrica Gale) having bitter fragrant leaves; -- also called sweet willow, and Dutch myrtle. See 5th Gale. Sweet grass (Bot.), holy, or Seneca, grass. Sweet gum (Bot.), an American tree (Liquidambar styraciflua). See Liquidambar. Sweet herbs, fragrant herbs cultivated for culinary purposes. Sweet John (Bot.), a variety of the sweet William. Sweet leaf (Bot.), horse sugar. See under Horse. Sweet marjoram. (Bot.) See Marjoram. Sweet marten (Zool.), the pine marten. Sweet maudlin (Bot.), a composite plant (Achillea Ageratum) allied to milfoil. Sweet oil, olive oil. Sweet pea. (Bot.) See under Pea. Sweet potato. (Bot.) See under Potato. Sweet rush (Bot.), sweet flag. Sweet spirits of niter (Med. Chem.) See Spirit of nitrous ether, under Spirit. Sweet sultan (Bot.), an annual composite plant (Centaurea moschata), also, the yellow-flowered (Centaurea odorata); -- called also sultan flower. Sweet tooth, an especial fondness for sweet things or for sweetmeats. [Colloq.] Sweet William. (a) (Bot.) A species of pink (Dianthus barbatus) of many varieties. (b) (Zool.) The willow warbler. (c) (Zool.) The European goldfinch; -- called also sweet Billy. [Prov. Eng.] Sweet willow (Bot.), sweet gale. Sweet wine. See Dry wine, under Dry. To be sweet on, to have a particular fondness for, or special interest in, as a young man for a young woman. [Colloq.] --Thackeray. [1913 Webster] Syn: Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Willow \Wil"low\, n. [OE. wilowe, wilwe, AS. wilig, welig; akin to OD. wilge, D. wilg, LG. wilge. Cf. Willy.] [1913 Webster] 1. (Bot.) Any tree or shrub of the genus Salix, including many species, most of which are characterized often used as an emblem of sorrow, desolation, or desertion. "A wreath of willow to show my forsaken plight." --Sir W. Scott. Hence, a lover forsaken by, or having lost, the person beloved, is said to wear the willow. [1913 Webster] And I must wear the willow garland For him that's dead or false to me. --Campbell. [1913 Webster] 2. (Textile Manuf.) A machine in which cotton or wool is opened and cleansed by the action of long spikes projecting from a drum which revolves within a box studded with similar spikes; -- probably so called from having been originally a cylindrical cage made of willow rods, though some derive the term from winnow, as denoting the winnowing, or cleansing, action of the machine. Called also willy, twilly, twilly devil, and devil. [1913 Webster] Almond willow, Pussy willow, Weeping willow. (Bot.) See under Almond, Pussy, and Weeping. Willow biter (Zool.) the blue tit. [Prov. Eng.] Willow fly (Zool.), a greenish European stone fly (Chloroperla viridis); -- called also yellow Sally. Willow gall (Zool.), a conical, scaly gall produced on willows by the larva of a small dipterous fly (Cecidomyia strobiloides). Willow grouse (Zool.), the white ptarmigan. See ptarmigan. Willow lark (Zool.), the sedge warbler. [Prov. Eng.] Willow ptarmigan (Zool.) (a) The European reed bunting, or black-headed bunting. See under Reed. (b) A sparrow (Passer salicicolus) native of Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe. Willow tea, the prepared leaves of a species of willow largely grown in the neighborhood of Shanghai, extensively used by the poorer classes of Chinese as a substitute for tea. --McElrath. Willow thrush (Zool.), a variety of the veery, or Wilson's thrush. See Veery. Willow warbler (Zool.), a very small European warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus); -- called also bee bird, haybird, golden wren, pettychaps, sweet William, Tom Thumb, and willow wren. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

sweet William n 1: Eurasian pink widely cultivated for its flat-topped dense clusters of varicolored flowers [syn: sweet William, Dianthus barbatus]