charlock

American  

[chahr-luhk] / ˈtʃɑr lək /

noun

1. a wild mustard, Brassica kaber, having lobed, ovate leaves and clusters of small, yellow flowers, often troublesome as a weed in grainfields.

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charlock British  

/ ˈtʃɑːlɒk /

noun

1. Also called: wild mustard.  a weedy Eurasian plant, Sinapis arvensis (or Brassica kaber ), with hairy stems and foliage and yellow flowers: family: Brassicaceae (crucifers)

2. Also called: wild radish.   runch.  a related plant, Raphanus raphanistrum, with yellow, mauve, or white flowers and podlike fruits

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Etymology

Origin of charlock

before 1000; Middle English cherlok, Old English cerlic < ?

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

charlock

The earth was soft and crumbling, with a scattering of the weeds that are found in cultivated fields—fumitory, charlock, pimpernel and mayweed, all growing in the green gloom under the bean leaves.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

So, too, with charlock, and with hill sides purple with heath, or where the woodlands are azure with bluebells for a hundred yards together.

From Nature Near London by Richard Jefferies

There are the seeds of the charlock and the thistle, and a hundred other little seeds, insects, and minute atom-like foods it needs a bird's eye to know.

From Field and Hedgerow Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies by Richard Jefferies

The Orderly jumped up and ran to the stove where, in one of the niches, stood the bowl of charlock hearts, a wild green that tastes exactly like tender sprouts.

From Girl Scouts in the Adirondacks by Lillian Elizabeth Roy

And he went off into technicalities concerning the abundance of charlock on the arable land of Pym.

From The Wonder by J. D. (John Davys) Beresford