woodbine

American  

[wood-bahyn] / ˈwʊdˌbaɪn /

noun

1. any of several climbing vines, especially those of genera Lonicera of the honeysuckle family and Parthenocissus of the grape family.

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woodbine British  

/ ˈwuːdˌbaɪn /

noun

1. a honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, of Europe, SW Asia, and N Africa, having fragrant creamy flowers

2. a related North American plant, L. caprifolium

3. another name for Virginia creeper

4. obsolete an Englishman

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Etymology

Origin of woodbine

First recorded before 900; Middle English wodebind(e), Old English wudubind, wudebinde, equivalent to wudu “wood” + bind “binding”; see origin at wood ¹, bind

Example Sentences

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: .

From Time Magazine Archive

Cool and resourceful, she "smells out money like a honey bee smells out woodbine."

From Time Magazine Archive

In the afternoon October’s lover takes the hill path, mica-gemmed, that leads between birches of the translucent yellow leaf and maples still green but wearing scarlet woodbine like a gypsy’s sash.

From Minstrel Weather by Storm, Marian

And wha has ta'en down that bush o' woodbine, 80 That hung between her bour and mine?

From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various

Its beauty, when seen draped in ivy and woodbine, clustering so thickly as to screen its gray walls from view, is at least not apocryphal.

From Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast by Drake, Samuel Adams