cardinal flower
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of cardinal flower
An Americanism dating back to 1620–30; so called from its color
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.
One very common flower resembles our cardinal flower, though not of so deep a color, another is very like rocket or phlox, but smaller and of various colors, white, blue and purple.
From Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 by Margaret Fuller
The prostrate trunks of a number of great trees lay half submerged in lily-choked pools, beside which stalks of the brilliant cardinal flower flamed by day in the green dimness.
From Followers of the Trail by William F. (William Frederick) Stecher
The cardinal flower is the only flower more gaudy in red than this bee balm.
From The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. by Ellen Eddy Shaw
The handsome Great Lobelia, constantly and invidiously compared with its gorgeous sister the cardinal flower, suffers unfairly.
From Wild Flowers Worth Knowing by Neltje Blanchan
Muriel Blake's golden curls, and azure eyes, and roseate bloom flashed on the eye much as does a cardinal flower in a wayside brook.
From Boston Neighbours In Town and Out by Agnes Blake Poor
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.
