death cap

[deth kap]

noun

1. a deadly poisonous mushroom of the genus Amanita, especially A. phalloides, with a distinctive membranous cup around the base of the stalk. Death caps resemble a number of edible mushrooms and are responsible for more deaths than any other species of mushroom.

death cap

noun

1. a poisonous woodland saprotrophic basidiomycetous fungus, Amanita phalloides, differing from the edible mushroom ( Agaricus ) only in its white gills (pinkish-brown in Agaricus ) and the presence of a volva See also amanita

Word History and Origins

Origin of death cap¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

He always wore a black sleeveless jacket to keep warm in the the winter chill, having never fully recovered from the death cap mushrooms that took his wife and two best friends.

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Patterson has long maintained her innocence, saying the toxic death cap mushrooms in the dish she prepared were accidentally added and that she never intended to harm her relatives.

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It was one of two locations where death cap mushrooms were sighted and posted on iNaturalist, a citizen science website.

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The leftovers, which police found in her bin, were tested for traces of death cap mushrooms.

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But when medics finally got Erin in for checks, neither she nor her children demonstrated similar symptoms to the others who'd eaten at the house, and tests showed no traces of death cap mushroom poisoning.

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