carrion flower

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noun

any of several North American climbing plants of the genus Smilax, especially S. herbacea, having small white flowers with an odor of carrion.

Also called starfish flower. any of various succulent plants of the genus Stapelia, of southern Africa, having spotted or variegated flowers often with a fetid odor.

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Origin of carrion flower

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Words nearby carrion flower

Carrington, carriole, carrion, carrion beetle, carrion crow, carrion flower, Carrión's disease, carritch, Carroll, Carroll, Lewis, Carrollton

How to use carrion flower in a sentence

He felt his body grow limp (like one of those high-speed films of a flower wilting).
Powerful Congressman Writes About ‘Fleshy Breasts’|Asawin Suebsaeng|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Her very first performance onstage came at the age of 4, when she cameoed as a dancing flower in the musical Bye Bye Birdie.
Jena Malone’s Long, Strange Trip From Homelessness to Hollywood Stardom|Marlow Stern|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
There are lovingly tended flower beds along each road and surrounding every barrack.
Afghanistan, We Hardly Knew You|Jonathan Foreman|December 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I decorated with marigolds, which are considered the flower of the dead.
New Orleans’ Carnivalesque Day of the Dead|Jason Berry|November 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST

She was obsessed with the flower-printed, scented toilet paper.
How ‘Titanic ’Helped This Brave Young Woman Escape North Korea’s Totalitarian State|Lizzie Crocker|October 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Let the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of great action is gone, like the bloom from a soiled flower.
Pearls of Thought|Maturin M. Ballou
The flower stems on the American varieties are much longer than those of European tobaccos and also larger.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.
Black Sheep retreated to the nursery and read "Cometh up as a Flower" with deep and uncomprehending interest.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II|Rudyard Kipling
Her face was mild and pale; but it was the transparent hue of the virgin flower of spring, clad in her veiling leaves.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter
And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version|Various

British Dictionary definitions for carrion flower

carrion flower

noun

a liliaceous climbing plant, Smilax herbacea of E North America, whose small green flowers smell like decaying flesh

any of several other plants, esp any of the genus Stapelia, whose flowers have an unpleasant odour

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