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feverfew

[fee-ver-fyoo]
See more synonyms for feverfew on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a bushy composite plant, Chrysanthemum parthenium, bearing small white flowers, formerly used as a remedy for fever and headache.
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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. 2018

Examples from the Web for feverfew

Historical Examples

  • 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.'

  • Let her boil burnet, mugwort, feverfew and vervain in all her broths.

  • The little, low-growing yellow-foliaged Feverfew, called Golden Feather, is used extensively for edging and design beds.

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

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

n.

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.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper