Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A poisonous Eurasian evergreen shrub (Nerium oleander) with narrow leathery leaves, widely cultivated for its showy fragrant white, rose, or purple flowers.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Any plant of the genus Nerium, most often N. Oleander, the ordinary species, a shrub of indoor culture from the Levant, having leathery lance-shaped leaves and handsome deep rose-colored or white flowers.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A beautiful evergreen shrub (
Nerium oleander ) of the Dogbane family, having clusters of fragrant red, white, or pink flowers. It is a native of the East Indies, but the red variety has become common in the south of Europe. Called alsorosebay ,rose laurel , andSouth-sea rose .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany Nerium oleander, a notoriously poisonous shrub in the
dogbane family,Apocynaceae , but nonetheless widely grown as an ornamental.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an ornamental but poisonous flowering shrub having narrow evergreen leaves and clusters of fragrant white to pink or red flowers: native to East Indies but widely cultivated in warm regions
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The olives and myrtles with Nerium oleander which is common, grow at the bottom of wadis or beside gueltas.
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Often cuttings of hard-wooded plants, such as oleander, are rooted in plain water, in wide-mouthed bottles hung in a warm place in the sun, the water being frequently renewed or kept fresh with a lump or so of charcoal.
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But if they ate poisonous plants, such as oleander, they could become very sick.
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Note—Louis has nearly completed the Orangerie—orange, oleander, pomegranate, and palm trees.
Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011
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But at the back of the courtyard, hibiscus and oleander were blossoming, pink and white flowers looking out over a sea of gray.
Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011
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Plants such as Lily of the Valley, foxglove, oleander and azalea are very toxic, says Dr. Muller, who suggests labeling all houseplants and keeping a close eye on children when outdoors.
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Amid the pink-hued beaches, the hidden coves, coral reefs and the heavy, perfumed scent of freesias and oleander, one also finds the sort of bustling restaurants, wine bars, corporate hotels and golf courses one would expect from an island that boasts the headquarters of companies such as Bacardi Ltd. and insurance brokers Hiscox Ltd.
Losing Oneself in Bermuda William Lyons 2011
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When the neighbor on the other side mentioned she was thinking of pulling out an oleander, they gasped—but relaxed when she said she might replace it with a citrus tree.
A New Addition Juliet Chung 2011
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The new property was tucked into a curve of the road, the narrow front yard closed off by white oleander and a six-foot iron fence.
Beyond the Curve Gay Degani 2012
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Everything except the bougainvillea and oleander was edible.
Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011
vanishedone commented on the word oleander
There's an International Oleander Society whose folklore page notes some ideas/stories about the origin of the word. The OED rather more staidly assocites it with 'post-classical Latin oleandrum, oliandrum, accusative (14th cent.) or Middle French, French oléandre (1314 in Old French), of uncertain origin.'
October 22, 2008
vendingmachine commented on the word oleander
Story: A troop of Boy Scouts on a camping trip, decides to have a weenie/marshmallow roast. They cut some sticks for everyone, roast away, and eat their fill. The next morning they are all dead because they used oleander sticks to roast their weenies and marshmallows. As everyone knows, oleander is deadly poison. (Where was the scoutmaster?)
Because this is a legend meant to make a point about the danger posed by this particular plant, those exposed to the tale will afterward be more careful about their use of plants in the wild. The victims are presented as individuals with whom listeners will sympathize: a troop of Boy Scouts. The use of sympathetic characters makes for a loss deemed especially tragic and adds to the pathos of the story, which in turn helps ensure that the tale better sticks in one's memory; it also makes for a more effective teaching device. Likewise, in this legend, the element of horror is raised to the highest possible level in that everyone in the group exposed to the oleander dies--not one Boy Scout survives the hot dogging. All die, as they must, if the point is to be made.
Conclusion: Hot dogs cooked on nerium oleander branch skewers contain a negligible amount of oleandrin. Poisoning by consuming hot dogs or other food items cooked on oleander branches is probably an urban myth.
--Snopes
June 27, 2015