Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of numerous plants of the family Gentianaceae and especially the genus Gentiana, characteristically having opposite leaves and showy, often blue flowers.
- noun The dried rhizome and roots of a yellow-flowered European gentian, G. lutea, sometimes used as a tonic.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The common name for species of the genus Gentiana.
- noun The pineweed or orange-grass, Sarothra gentianoides.
- noun The soapwort-gentian.
- noun Same as. striped gentian.
- noun The American columbo, Frasera Carolinensis.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) Any one of a genus (Gentiana) of herbaceous plants with opposite leaves and a tubular four- or five-lobed corolla, usually blue, but sometimes white, yellow, or red. See
Illust. ofcapsule . - noun fever root.
- noun (Bot.) the officinal gentian (
Gentiana lutea ). SeeBitterwort .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of various
herbs of the family Gentianaceae found in temperate and mountainous regions with violet or blue flowers. - noun The dried
roots andrhizome of a European gentian, Gentiana lutea, used as a tonic.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of various plants of the family Gentianaceae especially the genera Gentiana and Gentianella and Gentianopsis
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The Marmolata having retired from the scene, we now turn back, taking a short cut across the dreary "Col" and finding by the way some exquisite specimens of wild Daphne (Daphne Cneorum), abundance of the small mountain gentian (Gentiana verna), and large clusters of a very lovely, tiny pink flower with wax-like petals, minute and close as a lichen, and unlike anything that either of us has ever seen before.
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I use it, or another herb called gentian in animals as a tincture to stimulate appetite.
Dr. Richard Palmquist: Science Rediscovers the Forgotten Herb Andrographis Dr. Richard Palmquist 2012
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I use it, or another herb called gentian in animals as a tincture to stimulate appetite.
Dr. Richard Palmquist: Science Rediscovers the Forgotten Herb Andrographis Dr. Richard Palmquist 2012
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One of only two brands of bitters to survive prohibition, it's derived from a flowering plant known as a gentian, and is thinner than many other bitters, with less cloying flavors.
FOXNews.com foxnewsonline@foxnews.com 2010
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If the patient is run down in condition, bitter tonics, such as gentian, may be given in 2-dram doses twice a day and a liberal diet of grain allowed.
Special Report on Diseases of the Horse Charles B. Michener 1877
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Some mild and general tonic will likewise be useful, such as gentian and ginger.
The Dog William Youatt 1811
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Count the birds, notice the small blossoms just budding along the streambanks: gentian, violet crocus, bellflower.
Cato's Dog Was Right W.F. Lantry 2011
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I find it hard to countenance how such an exotic thing can do so well so far from its home in South America, but here it is, lighting up my garden still, its gentian-blue flowers defiant and powering on strongly.
Stunning salvias Dan Pearson 2010
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This tiny gentian, so faithful to the earth in its teardrop of honey-colored amber, bloomed and became immortal thirty-five million years before anyone thought of God.
Six Poems By Dan Gerber: Narrative Magazine's Friday Feature 2010
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This tiny gentian, so faithful to the earth in its teardrop of honey-colored amber, bloomed and became immortal thirty-five million years before anyone thought of God.
Six Poems By Dan Gerber: Narrative Magazine's Friday Feature 2010
chained_bear commented on the word gentian
"... later tests showed the stuff to be a compound of bone meal, charcoal, salt, pepper, chalk, baking soda, a flowering plant called gentian that was used as a flavoring in Moxie soda pop, and trace amounts of strychnine, or rat poison, which was then thought by some (crackpots) to have a cocainelike effect."
—Charles Leerhsen, Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 244–245
October 28, 2008
jaime_d commented on the word gentian
from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
ruzuzu commented on the word gentian
See diatessaron.
January 24, 2011