horehound

or hoar·hound

[ hawr-hound, hohr- ]
See synonyms for horehound on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an Old World plant, Marrubium vulgare, of the mint family, having downy leaves and small, whitish flowers, and containing a bitter, medicinal juice that is used as an expectorant, vermifuge, and laxative.

  2. any of various plants of the mint family.

  1. a brittle candy or lozenge flavored with horehound extract.

Origin of horehound

1
before 1000; Middle English horehune,Old English hārhūne, equivalent to hār gray, hoar + hūne horehound

Words Nearby horehound

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use horehound in a sentence

  • Chiefly found on nettles, which many shells like as food, though avoiding the commonly associated horehound.

    Our British Snails | John William Horsley
  • It was well that Miss Prime did not discover it: she would have given him horehound to cure—thought!

    The Uncalled | Paul Laurence Dunbar
  • Take a teaspoonful of the expressed juice of horehound (the herb) and mix it with a gill of new milk.

  • If you do not wish it to be very strong of horehound don't use quite so much.

    Candy-Making at Home | Mary M. Wright
  • horehound clenseth the breast and lungs, helps old coughs, easeth hard labour in child-bearing, brings away the after-birth.

British Dictionary definitions for horehound

horehound

hoarhound

/ (ˈhɔːˌhaʊnd) /


noun
  1. Also called: white horehound a downy perennial herbaceous Old World plant, Marrubium vulgare, with small white flowers that contain a bitter juice formerly used as a cough medicine and flavouring: family Lamiaceae (labiates): See also black horehound

  2. water horehound another name for bugleweed (def. 1)

Origin of horehound

1
Old English hārhūne, from hār grey + hūne horehound, of obscure origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012