flower

1. 1

   A colorful, conspicuous structure associated with angiosperms, frequently scented and attracting various insects, and which may or may not be used for sexual reproduction.countableuncountable

   • O Laurinella! little doſt thou wot / How fraile a flower thou doſt ſo highly prize: / Beauty's the flower, but love the flower-pot / That muſt preſerve it, els it quickly dyes.
   • The flowers glowed red and golden: snapdragons and sunflowers, and nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the round windows.
2. 2

   A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens and/or a pistil.countableuncountable

   • You know, Darwin studied their fertilisation, and showed that the whole structure of an ordinary orchid flower was contrived in order that moths might carry the pollen from plant to plant.
3. 3

   A plant that bears flowers, especially a plant that is small and lacks wood.countableuncountable

   • We transplanted the flowers to a larger pot.
4. 4

   The stem of a flowering plant with the blossom or blossoms attached, used for decoration, as a gift, etc.countableuncountable

   • He always keeps a vase full of flowers in his office.
5. 5

   Of plants, a state of bearing blooms.uncountableusually

   • The dogwoods are in flower this week.
6. 6

   The vulva, especially the labia majora.countableeuphemisticfamiliar

   • [F]or ſtill, that my virgin-flower was yet uncrop'd never once enter'd into his head, and he would have thought it idling with time and words to have queſtion'd me upon it.
   • In some local tradditions a fallen bride was married wearing a crown of straw rather than a garland of flowers, to symbolize her loss of virginity – the wilting of her flower.
7. 7

   The best examples or representatives of a group.countableuncountable

   • At Floddon hyllys, / Our bowys, our byllys / Slew all the floure / Of theyr honoure.
   • The choice and flower of all things profitable in other Bookes, the Pſalmes doe both more briefly contayne, and more mouingly alſo expreſſe, by reason of that Poeticall forme wherewith they are written.
8. 8

   The best state of things; the prime.countableuncountable

   • She was in the flower of her life.
9. 9

   Flour.countableobsoleteuncountable

   • The Flovvers of Grains mix'd vvith VVater vvill make a ſort of Glue.
10. 10

    A substance in the form of a powder, especially when condensed from sublimation.countablein-pluralobsolete

    • the flowers of sulphur

syn. head · pseudanthium · bloom · blossom · flower

1. 1

   To put forth blooms.intransitive

   • This plant flowers in June.
2. 2

   To decorate with pictures of flowers.transitive

3. 3

   To reach a state of full development or achievement.intransitive

   • It only needed watering to take root, to flower and to fructify, and the watering came in due course.
4. 4

   To froth; to ferment gently, as new beer.archaicintransitive

   • That beer did flower a little.
5. 5

   To come off as flowers by sublimation.intransitive

   • observations which have flowered off

1. 1

   Something that flows, such as a river.rare

   • Leaving the weavers’ village behind you, and crossing the sandy bed of the Vengavati or ‘Swift-flower,’ which, however, contained not a drop of water, you reach the ancient Jain temple.

syn. bloom · blossom · flower