Crossword clues for gladiolus
gladiolus
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gladiolus \Gla*di"o*lus\, n.; pl. L. Gladioli, E. Gladioluses. [L. See Gladiole.]
(Bot.) A genus of plants having bulbous roots and gladiate leaves, and including many species, some of which are cultivated and valued for the beauty of their flowers; the corn flag; the sword lily.
(Anat.) The middle portion of the sternum in some animals; the mesosternum.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1000, from Latin gladiolus "wild iris," literally "small sword," diminutive of gladius "sword" (see gladiator); so called by Pliny in reference to the plant's sword-shaped leaves. The Old English form of the word was gladdon. Form gladiol is attested mid-15c.; the modern use perhaps represents a 1560s reborrowing from Latin.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context anatomy English) The center part of the sternum. 2 Any of several flowering plants, of the genus ''Gladiolus'', having sword-shaped leaves and showy flowers on spikes; gladiola.
WordNet
n. any of numerous plants of the genus Gladiolus native chiefly to tropical and South Africa having sword-shaped leaves and one-sided spikes of brightly colored funnel-shaped flowers; widely cultivated [syn: gladiola, sword lily]
the large central part of the breastbone [syn: corpus sternum]
[also: gladioli (pl)]
Wikipedia
Gladiolus (from Latin, the diminutive of gladius, a sword) is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae).
It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but usually by its generic name (plural gladioli).
The genus occurs in Asia, Mediterranean Europe, South Africa, and tropical Africa. The center of diversity is in the Cape Floristic Region. The genera Acidanthera, Anomalesia, Homoglossum, and Oenostachys, formerly considered distinct, are now included in Gladiolus.
Gladiolus (from Latin, the diminutive of gladius, a sword) may refer to :
- Gladiolus, a genus of perennial bulbous flowering plants in the family Iridaceae
- HMS Gladiolus, a disambiguation page
- USS Gladiolus (1864), a steamship acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War
- the name for the body of sternum
- A pseudonym of William Ewart Gladstone
Usage examples of "gladiolus".
The house itself had a nice little garden, gay with geraniums and gladiolus, and bounded by a hedge of sunflowers which would have gladdened the heart of an aesthete.
He also made arrangements with a florist to have a fresh gladiolus delivered every week.
Later, after Bob had gone, a small girl brought a spray of gladiolus, their slender stems down to her toe-tips and the opening blossoms half hiding her face.
Long flowering spikes of Gladiolus, in shades of glorious purples ranging from lavender to fuchsia invited her to open her eyes just to admire their stunning beauty.
A wide-mouthed milk bottle filled with gladiolus was perched on another table under the window.
Mixed in with them were orange zinnias and lavender gladiolus that dipped toward the ground.
I clear-cut the gladiolus bed and made a six-foot garland by wiring the blossoms to a piece of string, which I thought I never would get right.
Emerging from the shrubs and landscaped lilies, Magnolias, Gladiolus and Hydrangeas, as the air had then cooled much and the end of late summer was marked by the first cold front that had brought cleansing rain which had pulled down the chemicals that the bursting refineries were issuing forth.
Beyond it lay the tiny garden, the lawn neatly trimmed, delphinia and gladioli, irises and hemerocallis, in bloom in the dark earth borders.
She walked hurriedly up the garden path, between the blooming puce rhododendrons, flowering puce gladioli, glorious puce sunflowers and spreading puce spruce trees and looking left and right and up and down as well, slipped behind the trellis work that hid the two puce dustbins and the garden shed, all painted puce.
The blue larkspur flourished beside scarlet gladioli, feather-headed spirea, and hardy fuchsia.
He carried his bag across the parched lawn, between the beds of Beauty Bush and forced gladioli, and let himself into the neat spare double room with the armchair, the bedside table, the Currier and Ives print, the chest of drawers and the brown plastic ash-tray that are standard motel equipment all over America.
As they walked between the beds, he introduced the flowers they passed as though they were old friends - here adjusting a stake that held a blood red gladioli upright, there swiftly beheading a dying blossom.
He was the President of the African Boys’ Club, here in Claremont, in Gladiolus Street.
Beyond it lay the tiny garden, the lawn neatly trimmed, delphinia and gladioli, irises and hemero-callis, in bloom in the dark earth borders.