late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
By recreating the glades which once existed in dense forest cover, they provide home for up to 120 flowering species, among them the devil's-bit scabious, globeflower, great burnet, lady's-mantle, oxeye daisy, pignut and wood crane's-bill.
From The Guardian • Dec. 13, 2012
They were idle; and when we will not sow corn, the devil will be sure to sow weeds, night-shade, henbane, and devil's-bit.
From Literary Remains, Volume 1 by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Our feet rattled through black patches of devil's-bit scabius; we skirted a swim of thistle-down, which glistened when the moon touched it.
From The White Peacock by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
The root of the barberry gave wool a beautiful yellow, as did the leaves of the devil's-bit.
From Home Life in Colonial Days by Earle, Alice Morse
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
