dusty miller

American  

noun

1. Botany.

   1. any of several composite plants, as Centaurea cineraria, Senecio cineraria, or the beach wormwood, having pinnate leaves covered with whitish pubescence.

   2. rose campion.

2. Angling. a type of artificial fly used chiefly for trout and salmon.

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dusty miller British  

noun

1. Also called: snow-in-summer.  a caryophyllaceous plant, Cerastium tomentosum, of SE Europe and Asia, having white flowers and downy stems and leaves: cultivated as a rock plant

2. a plant, Artemisia stelleriana, of NE Asia and E North America, having small yellow flower heads and downy stems and leaves: family Asteraceae (composites)

3. any of various other downy plants, such as the rose campion

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Etymology

Origin of dusty miller

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dusty miller

Here, they can wander among scarecrows and jack-o’-lanterns, investigate a Victorian playhouse, pot up a ghostly-looking dusty miller plant to take home and put on a show with insect and owl puppets.

From New York Times ● Oct. 10, 2019

Lucy and I had both a fight for it with the dusty miller; I know it was a hard fight on my part, and I am quite heroic.

From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

For indoor boxes in winter, the following may be used: abutilon, calceolaria, cyclamen, violets, primroses, petunias, geraniums, freesia, and such foliage plants as dracæna, cannas, dusty miller, and coleus.

From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Nature Study by Ontario. Ministry of Education

Small insects of night gathered, and at last a little dusty miller, but nothing came of any size.

From A Girl of the Limberlost by Stratton-Porter, Gene

“Have you a dusty miller, Jane?” she asked, glancing up with flushed face.

From The Meadow-Brook Girls Across Country The Young Pathfinders on a Summer Hike by Aldridge, Janet