Wormwood
['wɜːmwʊd] or ['wɝmwʊd]
Definition
(noun.) any of several low composite herbs of the genera Artemisia or Seriphidium.
Checked by Letitia--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A composite plant (Artemisia Absinthium), having a bitter and slightly aromatic taste, formerly used as a tonic and a vermifuge, and to protect woolen garments from moths. It gives the peculiar flavor to the cordial called absinthe. The volatile oil is a narcotic poison. The term is often extended to other species of the same genus.
(n.) Anything very bitter or grievous; bitterness.
Typed by Frank
Definition
n. the bitter plant Artemisia absinthium: bitterness.
Typed by Humphrey
Examples
- This very morning the two set out for Wormwood Wells [a noted watering-place], and will stay there some weeks. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- That's the wormwood, Robert Jordan told him. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- In this, the real absinthe, there is wormwood. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- My life is bitter as wormwood; the very life is burning out of me. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Edited by Jessica