watercress
Americannoun
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a cress, Nasturtium officinale, of the mustard family, usually growing in clear, running streams and having pungent leaves.
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the leaves, used for salads, soups, and as a garnish.
noun
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an Old World plant, Nasturtium officinale , of clear ponds and streams, having pungent leaves that are used in salads and as a garnish: family Brassicaceae (crucifers)
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any of several similar or related plants
Etymology
Origin of watercress
1300–50; Middle English; cognate with Middle Dutch, Middle Low German waterkerse. See water, cress
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Or the gallant, pragmatic 8-year-old street hawker selling watercress in Victorian London: “All my money I earns I puts in a club and draws it out to buy clothes with.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
It has since been named the UK's capital of watercress farming.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
The Alresford Watercress Festival in Hampshire marks the start of watercress season in the UK and a highlight of the event is The World Watercress Eating Championships.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
It’s also great in soups, like a watercress and potato vichyssoise.
From Salon ● May 14, 2025
He ate dandelion greens, birch bark, pigweed, wild onions, mushrooms, grass seed, watercress.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
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.
