any of various plants that blossom in May, such as the hepatica or anemone in the United States, and the hawthorn or cowslip in England.
Mayflower, the ship in which the Pilgrims sailed from Southampton, England, to North America in 1620.
any of various plants that bloom in May
another name for trailing arbutus
another name for hawthorn cowslip marsh marigold
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Epigea” refers to Epigaea repens, commonly known as trailing arbutus or mayflower: a low-growing shrub that produces clusters of pink flowers.
From Slate • May 17, 2016
Others make the world better for their beauty and fragrance and of these the ground laurel, the trailing arbutus, the mayflower, is best known and loved.
From Old Plymouth Trails by Packard, Winthrop
So, too, "mayflower" is more suggestive than "trailing arbutus," and that than Epigæa repens.
From The Renewal of Life; How and When to Tell the Story to the Young by Morley, Margaret Warner
The delicate and fragrant blossoms of the mayflower made the wooded hillsides sweet, and birds were singing and building their nests in the mild breezes, under the cloud-flecked sky.
From The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 From Discovery of America October 12, 1492 to Battle of Lexington April 19, 1775 by Hawthorne, Julian
"When the mayflower goes, the rose blooms," said Constance.
From A Pilgrim Maid A Story of Plymouth Colony in 1620 by Taggart, Marion Ames
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
