The Collaborative International Dictionary
Trailing \Trail"ing\,
& v
-
n. from Trail.
Trailing arbutus. (Bot.) See under Arbutus.
Trailing spring, a spring fixed in the axle box of the trailing wheels of a locomotive engine, and so placed as to assist in deadening any shock which may occur.
--Weale.Trailing wheel, a hind wheel of a locomotive when it is not a driving wheel; also, one of the hind wheels of a carriage.
Arbutus \Ar"bu*tus\, Arbute \Ar"bute\, n. [L. arbutus, akin to arbor tree.] The strawberry tree, a genus of evergreen shrubs, of the Heath family. It has a berry externally resembling the strawberry; the arbute tree.
Trailing arbutus (Bot.), a creeping or trailing plant of
the Heath family ( Epig[ae]a repens), having white or
usually rose-colored flowers with a delicate fragrance,
growing in small axillary clusters, and appearing early in
the spring; in New England known as mayflower; -- called
also ground laurel.
--Gray.
Wiktionary
n. The mayflower, (taxlink Epigaea repens species noshow=1), of eastern North America.
WordNet
n. low-growing evergreen shrub of eastern North America with leathery leaves and clusters of fragrant pink or white flowers [syn: mayflower, Epigaea repens]
Usage examples of "trailing arbutus".
It is never pleasant for a man of sensibility to find himself regarded as a buttinski and a trailing arbutus, and it was thus, I could see at a g.
Above all, there would be wildflowers in dazzling profusion, blossoming from every twig, pushing valiantly through the fertile litter on the forest floor, carpeting every sunny slope and stream bank--trillium and trailing arbutus, Dutchmen's breeches, jack-in-the-pulpit, mandrake, violets, snowy bluets, buttercups and bloodroot, dwarf iris, columbine and wood sorrel, and other cheerful, nodding wonders almost beyond counting.
The field was now overgrown with hazel and laurel bushes, and intermingling with them w ere the trailing arbutus, the honeysuckle, and the wild rose.
Overcome, he had contrived to hobble his mule, but then had wrapped himself in his coat and fallen asleep among the trailing arbutus by the road.