cruciferous

[ kroo-sif-er-uhs ]

/ kruˈsɪf ər əs /

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adjective

bearing a cross.

Botany. belonging to the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae), the mustard family of plants; brassicaceous: Are you getting enough broccoli, cauliflower, and other cruciferous vegetables in your diet?

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Origin of cruciferous

From Late Latin crucifer + -ous; def. 1 was first recorded in1650–60; def. 2 in 1850–55; see origin at crucifer, -ous

Words nearby cruciferous

cruciate ligament of knee, cruciate muscle, crucible, crucible steel, crucifer, cruciferous, crucifix, crucifixion, crucifixion thorn, cruciform, crucify

How to use cruciferous in a sentence

The soil is clayey, and thinly bestrewed with alpine grass, intermingled with syngenesious and cruciferous plants.
Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests|J. J. von Tschudi
Its caterpillar lives near the regions of perpetual snow, on small cruciferous plants.
The Insect World|Louis Figuier
Scur′viness, state of being scurvy: meanness; Scur′vy-grass, a genus of cruciferous plants, efficacious in curing scurvy.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements)|Various
Eight hundred fathoms broad at this point, the Niger flowed between banks richly grown with cruciferous plants and tamarind-trees.
Five Weeks in a Balloon|Jules Verne

The cruciferous, or cress-like tribes afford one-seventh of the species, and the compound flowers are nearly as numerous.
Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea|John Franklin

British Dictionary definitions for cruciferous

cruciferous

/ (kruːˈsɪfərəs) /

adjective

of, relating to, or belonging to the plant family CruciferaeSee crucifer (def. 1)

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