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View synonyms for flower

flower

[ flou-er ]

noun

  1. the blossom of a plant:

    She picked a bunch of flowers for her mother.

    He always wore a flower in his lapel, usually a carnation.

  2. Botany.
    1. the part of a seed plant comprising the reproductive organs and their envelopes if any, especially when such envelopes are more or less conspicuous in form and color.
    2. an analogous reproductive structure in other plants, as the mosses.
  3. a plant considered with reference to its blossom or cultivated for its floral beauty:

    If it doesn’t rain today, I’ll need to water the flowers in the garden.

  4. an ornament or decoration representing a flower:

    She doesn’t like any fabric that has flowers on it.

    The classroom walls were decorated with cheery flowers painted by the children.

  5. an ornament or adornment:

    I felt like I was being told to be just a flower, but I wanted to have input and share my ideas.

  6. Also called fleuron, floret. Printing. an ornamental piece of type, especially a stylized floral design, often used in a line to decorate chapter headings, page borders, or bindings.
  7. the choicest or finest part, member, or example:

    Emigration took the flower of the nation’s youth, desperate for a better life.

    It was a love poem, calling her “the flower of humanity” and other romantic epithets.

  8. the bud of the cannabis or hemp plant, or such buds collectively, secreting over 100 different cannabinoids:

    For testing purposes, you only need to bring in one cannabis flower for analysis.

    This is high-quality cannabis flower, with 12 to 18 percent THC.

  9. flowers, (used with a singular verb) Chemistry. a substance in the form of a fine powder, especially as obtained by sublimation:

    flowers of sulfur.



verb (used without object)

  1. to produce flowers; blossom; come to full bloom:

    This shrub usually flowers in June.

  2. to come into full development; mature:

    Regular air passenger service did not flower till after World War II.

    Synonyms: ripen, blossom, bloom, flourish, develop

verb (used with object)

  1. to decorate with a floral design:

    The skirt of the dress is flowered.

  2. to cover or deck with flowers:

    For the wedding photos, they flowered the church steps with roses.

flower

/ ˈflaʊə /

noun

    1. a bloom or blossom on a plant
    2. a plant that bears blooms or blossoms
  1. the reproductive structure of angiosperm plants, consisting normally of stamens and carpels surrounded by petals and sepals all borne on the receptacle (one or more of these structures may be absent). In some plants it is conspicuous and brightly coloured and attracts insects or other animals for pollination floral antho-
  2. any similar reproductive structure in other plants
  3. the prime; peak

    in the flower of his youth

  4. the choice or finest product, part, or representative

    the flower of the young men

  5. a decoration or embellishment
  6. printing a type ornament, used with others in borders, chapter headings, etc
  7. Also calledfleuron an embellishment or ornamental symbol depicting a flower
  8. plural fine powder, usually produced by sublimation

    flowers of sulphur

“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


verb

  1. intr to produce flowers; bloom
  2. intr to reach full growth or maturity
  3. tr to deck or decorate with flowers or floral designs
“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

flower

/ flouər /

  1. The reproductive structure of the seed-bearing plants known as angiosperms. A flower may contain up to four whorls or arrangements of parts: carpels, stamens, petals, and sepals. The female reproductive organs consist of one or more carpels . Each carpel includes an ovary, style, and stigma. A single carpel or a group of fused carpels is sometimes called a pistil. The male reproductive parts are the stamens, made up of a filament and anther. The reproductive organs may be enclosed in an inner whorl of petals and an outer whorl of sepals. Flowers first appeared over 120 million years ago and have evolved a great diversity of forms and coloration in response to the agents that pollinate them. Some flowers produce nectar to attract animal pollinators, and these flowers are often highly adapted to specific groups of pollinators. Flowers pollinated by moths, such as species of jasmine and nicotiana, are often pale and fragrant in order to be found in the evening, while those pollinated by birds, such as fuschias, are frequently red and odorless, since birds have good vision but a less developed sense of smell. Wind-pollinated flowers, such as those of oak trees or grass, are usually drab and inconspicuous.
  2. See Note at pollination


flower

  1. The part of a plant that produces the seed. It usually contains petals, a pistil , and pollen -bearing stamens .


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Derived Forms

  • ˈflower-ˌlike, adjective
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Other Words From

  • re·flow·er verb
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Word History and Origins

Origin of flower1

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English flour “flower, best of anything,” from Old French flor, flour, flur, from Latin flōr-, stem of flōs; bloom 1( def ), flour
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Word History and Origins

Origin of flower1

C13: from Old French flor , from Latin flōs ; see blow ³
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. in flower,
    1. blossoming; having open blooms:

      Peonies were in flower.

    2. in the period of finest or greatest flourishing; at the peak of development:

      English poetic drama was in flower during the reign of Elizabeth I.

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Example Sentences

Like other male mosquitoes, they drink flower nectar, not blood.

“You could also send flowers on the day of the wedding or bring a card to the wedding and give them that instead,” she says.

From Fortune

After the adult emerges, it drinks nectar from flowers and mates.

Afterward, women at the temple performed their usual routine — praying to Hindu deities and offering fruits and flowers.

Making drone pollination practical would require flying robots that can recognize flowers and deftly target specific blossoms, the researchers say.

He felt his body grow limp (like one of those high-speed films of a flower wilting).

Her very first performance onstage came at the age of 4, when she cameoed as a dancing flower in the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

There are lovingly tended flower beds along each road and surrounding every barrack.

I decorated with marigolds, which are considered the flower of the dead.

She was obsessed with the flower-printed, scented toilet paper.

Let the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of great action is gone, like the bloom from a soiled flower.

The flower stems on the American varieties are much longer than those of European tobaccos and also larger.

Black Sheep retreated to the nursery and read "Cometh up as a Flower" with deep and uncomprehending interest.

Her face was mild and pale; but it was the transparent hue of the virgin flower of spring, clad in her veiling leaves.

And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.

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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.

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