feverfew

[fee-ver-fyoo]

noun

a bushy composite plant, Chrysanthemum parthenium, bearing small white flowers, formerly used as a remedy for fever and headache.

Origin of feverfew

1400–50; late Middle English < Anglo-French *feverfue (replacing early Middle English fever fugie, Old English feferfuge) < Late Latin febrifugia. See febrifuge

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for feverfew

Historical Examples of feverfew

There is some flower here that the pompous Feverfew doesn't care to associate with.
Old-Time Gardens
Alice Morse Earle
So says I, 'You may go down on your four bones to feverfew.'
The Cloister and the Hearth
Charles Reade
Let her boil burnet, mugwort, feverfew and vervain in all her broths.
The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher
Anonymous
The little, low-growing yellow-foliaged Feverfew, called Golden Feather, is used extensively for edging and design beds.
The Practical Garden-Book
C. E. Hunn
They sat down on the sour stony land among the rag-wort and teazles and feverfew.
Plashers Mead
Compton Mackenzie

British Dictionary definitions for feverfew

feverfew

noun

a bushy European strong-scented perennial plant, Tanacetum parthenium, with white flower heads, formerly used medicinally: family Asteraceae (composites)

Word Origin for feverfew

Old English feferfuge, from Late Latin febrifugia, from Latin febris fever + fugāre to put to flight

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

Word Origin and History for feverfew

Old English feferfuge, from Late Latin febrifugia, from Latin febris "fever" (see fever) + fugare "put to flight;" so called for its medical usage. The modern English word probably is from an Anglo-French source.