First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English rose mary (by folk etymology, influenced by rose 1 and the name Mary ), from Latin rōs “dew” + marīnus “marine,” or rōs maris “dew of the sea” (in English the final -s mistaken for plural sign)
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some plants infuse their leaves with chemicals that are toxic to pests but useful to humans in moderation, such as the bitter tannins in tea and the fragrant oils in mint and rosemary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
The “charcoal forest room” includes hanging bags of dried mugwort from Korea that smell similar to rosemary.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
He grows about 60 different crops, including herbs such as rosemary and thyme, heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers, and pick-your-own strawberries and flowers.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
Options already exist for fixing dyes without lead, including natural mordants derived from plants rich in tannins, such as oak bark, pomegranate peel and rosemary, as well as alum, which is considered environmentally safe.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 2, 2026
“Here’s rosemary; that’s for remembrance,” I said, tucking a sprig into his doublet, which had been ripped and smeared with dirt in the fray with the guards.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Parent Rosemary Randall, who has four children, said the charity had "massively supported" her family.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
Before Washington's call, Rosemary Di Carlo, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, warned a "worrying aspect of the conflict in Sudan is its increasing complexity."
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
Rosemary and Peter Grant, a married pair of evolutionary biologists who studied songbirds on Daphne Major, a small volcanic island in the Galápagos archipelago, are the subjects of Jonathan Weiner’s “The Beak of the Finch.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Fedorenko's group found a way around that obstacle by working with Rosemary Varley, a neuroscientist at University College London who studies acquired language disorders, and her team.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
“We asked very specific questions and were looking for clear answers,” Rosemary Truglio, Sesame Street's research head said.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
One half remained in my study, under a wire-gauze cover, with, small bunches of brushwood as supports; the other half were experiencing the vicissitudes of open-air life on the rosemaries in the enclosure.
From The Life of the Spider by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
I know, from my past excavations, the points favoured by the grub: the mounds of sand heaped up by the wind at the foot of the rosemaries on the neighbouring hill-sides.
From More Hunting Wasps by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
Let us go every evening, step by step, from one border of tall rosemaries to the next.
From The Life of the Spider by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
We inspect the stunted rosemaries along the edge of a path sheltered by a rocky, wooded slope; we lift the branches that spread over the ground.
From The Life of the Spider by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
While the new inhabitants are twisting their ropes on the rosemaries in the enclosure, one evening, by the last gleams of twilight, I discover a splendid Spider, with a mighty belly, just outside my door.
From The Life of the Spider by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
