Crossword clues for pimpernel
pimpernel
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pimpernel \Pim"per*nel\, n. [F. pimprenelle; cf. Sp. pimpinela, It. pimpinella; perh. from LL. bipinnella, for bipinnula two-winged, equiv. to L. bipennis; bis twice + penna feather, wing. Cf. Pen a feather.] (Bot.) A plant of the genus Anagallis, of which one species ( Anagallis arvensis) has small flowers, usually scarlet, but sometimes purple, blue, or white, which speedily close at the approach of bad weather.
Water pimpernel. (Bot.) See Brookweed.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1400, from Old French pimprenelle, earlier piprenelle (12c.) and directly from Medieval Latin pipinella name of a medicinal plant. This is perhaps from *piperinus "pepper-like" (so called because its fruits resemble peppercorns), a derivative of Latin piper "pepper" (see pepper (n.)); or else it is a corruption of bipinnella, from bipennis "two-winged." The Scarlet Pimpernel was the code name of the hero in an adventure novel of that name published 1905.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context now rare English) A plant of the genus (taxlink Pimpinella genus noshow=1), especially (vern: burnet saxifrage), (taxlink Pimpinella saxifraga species noshow=1). (from 16th c.) 2 Any of various plants of the genus ''Anagallis'', having small red, white or purple flowers, especially the scarlet pimpernel, {''Anagallis arvensis''. (from 15th c.) 3 Great burnet or (vern: salad burnet). (from 16th c.) 4 Someone resembling the fictional (w The Scarlet Pimpernel Scarlet Pimpernel); a gallant dashing resourceful man given to remarkable feat of bravery and derring-do in liberating victim of tyranny and injustice. (from 20th c.)
WordNet
n. European garden herb with purple-tinged flowers and leaves that are sometimes used for salads [syn: salad burnet, burnet bloodwort, Poterium sanguisorba]
any of several plants of the genus Anagallis
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "pimpernel".
From the papers, Amy learned that the Pimpernel had spirited Papa out of prison disguised as a cask of cheap red wine.
Wild charlock--a clear yellow--pink pimpernels, pink-streaked convolvulus, great white convolvulus, double-yellow toadflax, blue borage, broad rays of blue chicory, tall corn-cockles, azure corn-flowers, the great mallow, almost a bush, purple knapweed--I will make no further catalogue, but there are pages more of flowers, great and small, that grow at the edge of the plough, from the coltsfoot that starts out of the clumsy clod in spring to the white clematis.
He knew nothing save that a cripple named Goujon had visited him and had induced him to send his subordinate and a small squad to search a certain house in the Rue des Pipots, where the prisoner, Rollin, was supposed to have held converse with the noted English spy known as the Scarlet Pimpernel.
EL DORADO by Baroness Orczy FOREWORD There has of late years crept so much confusion into the mind of the student as well as of the general reader as to the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel with that of the Gascon Royalist plotter known to history as the Baron de Batz, that the time seems opportune for setting all doubts on that subject at rest.
The identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel is in no way whatever connected with that of the Baron de Batz, and even superficial reflection will soon bring the mind to the conclusion that great fundamental differences existed in these two men, in their personality, in their character, and, above all, in their aims.
Paris, the young man felt that that restriction would certainly not apply to a man like de Batz, whose hot partisanship of the Royalist cause and hare-brained schemes for its restoration must make him at one with the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
It was he who had thrown it open--he who, followed by a couple of his sleuth-hounds, had thought to find here the man denounced by de Batz as being one of the followers of that irrepressible Scarlet Pimpernel.
The day on which I had the honour of meeting you at Dover, and less than an hour after I had your final answer, I obtained possession of some papers, which revealed another of those subtle schemes for the escape of a batch of French aristocrats--that traitor de Tournay amongst others--all organized by that arch-meddler, the Scarlet Pimpernel.
That the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel had no intention of abandoning its cause, she had gathered through little Suzanne herself, who spoke openly of the assurance she and her mother had had that the Comte de Tournay would be rescued from France by the league, within the next few days.
There was also Armand, who had gone to meet de Tournay, secure in the knowledge that the Scarlet Pimpernel was watching over his safety.
Just, waits with that traitor de Tournay, and two other men unknown to you, for the arrival of the mysterious rescuer, whose identity has for so long puzzled our Committee of Public Safety--the audacious Scarlet Pimpernel.
In a tiny clearing surrounded by the oldest trees lay a carpet of wildflowers of every hue, many unknown in the north: orchid, iris, bellflower, campion, foxglove, betony, pimpernel, primrose, violet, and cranesbill.
For instance, the blue and red pimpernel, the primrose and cowslip, which are considered by many of our best botanists as varieties, are said by Gartner not to be quite fertile when crossed, and he consequently ranks them as undoubted species.
Egdon are allowed to keep flowers in their cells, and often risk severe reprimand by stooping to pick pimpernels and periwinkles on their way from work.
Wild charlock--a clear yellow--pink pimpernels, pink-streaked convolvulus, great white convolvulus, double-yellow toadflax, blue borage, broad rays of blue chicory, tall corn-cockles, azure corn-flowers, the great mallow, almost a bush, purple knapweed--I will make no further catalogue, but there are pages more of flowers, great and small, that grow at the edge of the plough, from the coltsfoot that starts out of the clumsy clod in spring to the white clematis.