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The Collaborative International Dictionary
fiddlehead

fiddlehead \fid"dle*head`\ n.

  1. any of several tall ferns of northern temperate regions having graceful arched fronds and sporophylls resembling ostrich plumes.

    Syn: ostrich fern, shuttlecock fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, Pteretis struthiopteris, Onoclea struthiopteris.

  2. New World fern ( Osmunda cinnamonea) having woolly cinnamon-colored spore-bearing fronds in early spring later surrounded by green fronds, called also fiddlehead fern; the early uncurling fronds are edible, and sometimes considered as a vegetable delicacy.

    Syn: cinnamon fern, fiddlehead fern, Osmunda cinnamonea.

  3. (Naut.) an ornament on a ship's bow, curved like the volute or scroll at the head of a violin. Sometimes it serves the function of a billhead.

Wiktionary
fiddlehead

n. 1 The scroll-shaped decoration at the tip of a fiddle. 2 The furled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption.

WordNet
fiddlehead
  1. n. tall fern of northern temperate regions having graceful arched fronds and sporophylls resembling ostrich plumes [syn: ostrich fern, shuttlecock fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, Pteretis struthiopteris, Onoclea struthiopteris]

  2. New World fern having woolly cinnamon-colored spore-bearing fronds in early spring later surrounded by green fronds; the early uncurling fronds are edible [syn: cinnamon fern, fiddlehead fern, Osmunda cinnamonea]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "fiddlehead".

Legumes Bulot, the premier vegetable booth, to obtain fiddlehead ferns.

Sister Hyacinthe ecstatically-and when they encountered fiddlehead ferns and stalks of mullein her gasps grew more pronounced and her steps slower.

From a pile of greens gathered in the woods she selected young nettle leaves, handfuls of red clover blossoms, dandelion greens and a number of fiddlehead ferns.

Then Jonathan saw the little fiddlehead which he recognized as part of their borrowed canoe.

On an old blanket spread out neatly Nathaniel saw an ancient musket, but no evidence of shot or powder, some snares, a single beaver trap, and the remains of a meal of rabbit and fiddlehead ferns on a mat of woven reeds.

Vermont is Volvos and antique shops and country inns with cutely contrived names like Quail Hollow Lodge and Fiddlehead Farm Inn.

In the spring Loo can gather all sorts of sprouts, fiddlehead ferns, mushrooms.

Beyond it, against the south wall, the delicate fiddlehead scrolls of young ferns arched up through the last, sheltered crust of snow.

The warming rain collected in his tarp, but it denied him dry under as well, and Coop existed on his own fat and fiddlehead ferns for a week.

A salad of scallions, fresh mushrooms, watercress, and fiddlehead ferns completed the course.

Murasaki did not see any fiddleheads on display and before she had the chance to ask, Bulot of the Vegetables brought a basket of the coiled ferns from under his counter.

Most of the few fiddleheads she found were too bitter to eat, but she continued foraging.

It was cooking in a ground oven, a hole in the ground lined with hot rocks into which she had put the deer meat seasoned with herbs, along with mushrooms, bracken fern fiddleheads, and cattail roots she had gathered, all wrapped in coltsfoot leaves.

While they waited for the baking to be completed, Diarmid and the girl roasted fiddleheads and feasted on figs.

Slanting torrents of light played on the jungle canopy only meters below the lowest-riding cities, sparkled on the stone and plaster and marble, the dozen shades of yellows and pinks and ochers of the buildings, the flashing, angled reflections of the antigrav generators and the tasseled gardens of blueleaf, tremmin, fiddleheaded bull-ferns.