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.

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

Before that time, there was a lily known as the Easter lily, but whose right name is the lilium candidum or Madonna lily.

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

The earth is full of the perfume of the Easter lily today.

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

No more fitted to it than an Easter lily.

From Green Fancy by McCutcheon, George Barr

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