Crossword clues for herbicide
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1888, originally a trademark name, from herb + -cide.
Wiktionary
n. A substance used to kill plants.
WordNet
n. a chemical agent that destroys plants or inhibits their growth [syn: weedkiller, weed killer]
Wikipedia
Herbicide(s), also commonly known as weedkillers, are chemical substances used to control unwanted plants. Selective herbicides control specific weed species, while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed, while non-selective herbicides (sometimes called "total weedkillers" in commercial products) can be used to clear waste ground, industrial and construction sites, railways and railway embankments as they kill all plant material with which they come into contact. Apart from selective/non-selective, other important distinctions include persistence (also known as residual action: how long the product stays in place and remains active), means of uptake (whether it is absorbed by above-ground foliage only, through the roots, or by other means), and mechanism of action (how it works). Historically, products such as common salt and other metal salts were used as herbicides, however these have gradually fallen out of favor and in some countries a number of these are banned due to their persistence in soil, and toxicity and groundwater contamination concerns. Herbicides have also been used in warfare and conflict.
Modern herbicides are often synthetic mimics of natural plant hormones which interfere with growth of the target plants. The term organic herbicide has come to mean herbicides intended for organic farming; these are often less efficient and more costly than synthetic herbicides and are based on natural materials. Some plants also produce their own natural herbicides, such as the genus Juglans ( walnuts), or the tree of heaven; such action of natural herbicides, and other related chemical interactions, is called allelopathy. Due to herbicide resistance - a major concern in agriculture - a number of products also combine herbicides with different means of action.
In the US in 2007, about 83% of all herbicide usage, determined by weight applied, was in agriculture. In 2007, world pesticide expenditures totaled about $39.4 billion; herbicides were about 40% of those sales and constituted the biggest portion, followed by insecticides, fungicides, and other types. Smaller quantities are used in forestry, pasture systems, and management of areas set aside as wildlife habitat.
Usage examples of "herbicide".
Rice and wheat were feeble and undependable crops here, but the amaranth is so hardy that we have to use herbicides around the fields to keep it from spreading.
The spraying could be conducted with the herbicide glyphosate, which is used by many Americans on their own gardens under the trade name Roundup.
Japanese knotweed or nettles, both of which can be destroyed by using a recommended herbicide, available from Jekyll Garden Centres.
The courses themselves are monocultures of hybrid grasses maintained with industrial doses of fertilizer and herbicides, the grass groomed until it resembles nothing else found in Nature.
It had begun with the poisoning of the Atlantic phytoplankton, the very beginning of the chain of nutrition for all marine life, by land effluents loaded with insecticides and herbicides.
If the enzymatic pathway is blocked by damage from herbicides or ultraviolet light, grasses will immediately stop growing.
Unable to come up with a likely herbicide before it would be pointless, the suit suddenly sprouted long swordlike spikes from head to feet, extending them and digging into the plant, particularly inside the mouth.
When you entered the hallowed landscaping of Nob Hill, life slowed down and became mellow, mosquitoes disappeared, temperatures in summertime were reduced by at least ten degrees, the sidewalks had no cracks, the streets were freshly paved, all lawns sported a uniform cut according to the covenants, and not a single dandelion marred the greensward thanks to the massive applications of Life Erase, the latest domestic herbicide to toxify our exhausted planet.
Marcus had collected enough solvents, acids, propellants, and other chemicals to make a fairly noxious smoke bomb combined with an aerosol herbicide, the same kind she had used sparingly on her garden on Pacifica.
Herbicides, primarily used in defoliation missions, destroyed everything green around special forces camps, major air bases, along canals, rivers, highways, and anything that would offer the enemy cover.
Regardless, she strained to focus her thoughts on her new assignment, an article about the overuse of herbicides and pesticides on Midwestern farms and the recent discovery that those poisons had passed through the soil and now were present in alarming quantity in the water supply of various cities.
Never mind the herbicides and pesticides in the drinking water or the leaks from nuclear plants.
Every fifth or sixth field was in wheat or barley, ripe now and the same bronze-gold color as Adrienne's hair, almost glittering as it swayed in the long shadows of the evening sun, and so thickly splashed with crimson poppies that he knew without asking they didn't use herbicides here.
The barrenness of Atlas's land eliminated the need for herbicides and extensive weeding, since nothing grew except what was planted and nurtured, but the vegetables and grains had to be watered and nourished carefully.
Every farmer that I know of, who is worth his salt or who's just average, is ahead of the experiment stations and the research agronomist in finding better ways, changing ways to plant, cultivate, utilize herbicides, gather, cure, sell farm products.