comfrey

American

[kuhm-free] / ˈkʌm fri /

noun

any coarse Eurasian plant belonging to the genus Symphytum, of the borage family, as the widely cultivated S. officinale, having hairy, lance-shaped leaves and drooping clusters of small, white, rose-colored, or purplish flowers.

comfrey British

/ ˈkʌmfrɪ /

noun

any hairy Eurasian boraginaceous plant of the genus Symphytum, having blue, purplish-pink, or white flowers

"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

comfreys

plural

Etymology

Origin of comfrey

1275–1325; Middle English cumfirie, conferye < Anglo-French cumfirie, Old French confire < Medieval Latin *confervia for Latin conferva conferva

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:

comfrey

Once your comfrey becomes established, you’ll have a lifetime source of natural fertilizer.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023

Pick four or five fresh comfrey leaves and place them in a blender.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023

In addition, liquid comfrey has other growth promoting factors produced by bacteria that are not present in commercial fertilizers.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023

Three to five times a year, about once a month throughout spring and summer, I harvest the comfrey, cutting it down to about 3 inches.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 24, 2022

In that way she learned that midwifery was as much about hard work and good sense and comfrey tonic as spells and magic.

From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023