Easter lily

American

noun

any of several white-flowered lilies that are artificially brought into bloom in early spring, especially Lilium longiflorum eximium, native to Taiwan and widely cultivated.

Easter lily British

noun

any of various lilies, esp Lilium longiflorum, that have large showy white flowers

"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

Etymology

Origin of Easter lily

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Easter lily

Startled first-nighters saw the heroine clad as half nun and half Easter lily, her duenna completely faceless, another nun headless and one tavern character with two heads.

From Time Magazine Archive

Like most of the others, Tony is growing the Croft, a white, sturdy, strong-stemmed Easter lily that multiplies at the rate of 150 bulbs from one bulb a season, will grow 20,000 to the acre.

From Time Magazine Archive

Robert had brought her a splendid Easter lily.

From Best Short Stories by Thomas L. Masson

It, also, is pure white, and similar in form to the Easter lily of today except that it is more bell-shaped.

From Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear Or, Ten-Minute Talks with Colored Chalks by B. J. (Bert Joseph) Griswold

No more fitted to it than an Easter lily.

From Green Fancy by George Barr McCutcheon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023