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definitions

cornflower

[kawrn-flou-er]
noun
  1. Also called bachelor's-button, bluebottle. a European composite plant, Centaurea cyanus, growing in grainfields, having blue to white flower heads, often cultivated as an ornamental.
  2. Also called cornflower blue. a deep, vivid blue.
  3. corn cockle.
  4. strawflower(def 2).

Origin of cornflower

First recorded in 1570–80; corn1 + flower
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cornflower

Historical Examples of cornflower

  • The khaki of the British mingled with the cornflower blue of the French.

  • The girl hesitated, and then took a cornflower from her little bouquet.

    Thereby Hangs a Tale

    George Manville Fenn

  • "You have one great fault," exclaimed the Cornflower, after listening to all these stories.

    Verotchka's Tales

    Mamin Siberiak

  • The chintz had a cornflower design that repeated all these colors.

  • The beds and borders crammed with cloves and many-coloured asters, the sweet blue of the cornflower, and the little lobelias.

    A Cotswold Village

    J. Arthur Gibbs

British Dictionary definitions for cornflower

cornflower

noun
  1. a Eurasian herbaceous plant, Centaurea cyanus, with blue, purple, pink, or white flowers, formerly a common weed in cornfields: family Asteraceae (composites)Also called: bluebottle See also bachelor's-buttons
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