Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

butter-and-eggs

American  
[buht-er-uhn-egz] / ˈbʌt ər ənˈɛgz /

noun

(used with a singular or plural verb)
  • butter-and-eggs
    plural
  1. any of certain plants whose flowers are of two shades of yellow, as the toadflax, Linaria vulgaris.


butter-and-eggs British  

noun

  1. (functioning as singular) any of various plants, such as toadflax, the flowers of which are of two shades of yellow

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of butter-and-eggs

First recorded in 1770–80


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.

See Examples For:

But that was changing: He pointed to butter-and-eggs, oxeye daisies, bellflowers, tufted vetch, hemp nettle, spotted jewelweed, creeping Charlie, common tansy, orange hawkweed.

From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2021

Unlike its relative butter-and-eggs, the corolla of this toadflax is so contracted that bees cannot enter it; but by inserting their long tongues, they nevertheless manage to drain it.

From Wild Flowers An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Visitors by Neltje Blanchan

The butter-and-eggs plant, they were well aware, was as free as the clover, or the milk-weed blossoms, or any other of the wild flowers.

From The Tale of Betsy Butterfly Tuck-Me-In Tales by Arthur Scott Bailey

From the grassy roadside she gathered yellow and gold butter-and-eggs, blue spikes of false dragon’s head, and edged them with a lacy ruffle of wild carrot flowers.

From Amanda — a Daughter of the Mennonites by Anna Balmer Myers

The hues of wild flowers vary with their situation: in shady woodlands the toadflax or butter-and-eggs is often pale—a sulphur colour; upon the Downs it is a deep and beautiful yellow.

From Round About a Great Estate by Richard Jefferies

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training