hardhack

American  

[hahrd-hak] / ˈhɑrdˌhæk /

noun

1. a woolly-leaved North American shrub, Spiraea tomentosa, of the rose family, having short, spikelike clusters of rose-colored flowers.

2. shrubby cinquefoil.

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hardhack British  

/ ˈhɑːdˌhæk /

noun

1. Also called: steeplebush.  a woody North American rosaceous plant, Spiraea tomentosa, with downy leaves and tapering clusters of small pink or white flowers

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Etymology

Origin of hardhack

An Americanism dating back to 1805–15; hard + hack ¹

Example Sentences

The waste lands shine yellow with the blooms of the marching hardhack.

From Minstrel Weather by Storm, Marian

Once they drew their canoe up to the bank of Sunasquam Water, a stream walled in by the dense green of the hardhack.

From Babbitt by Lewis, Sinclair

When she came to a lonely place in the road, when she was walking between stone-walls overgrown with poison-ivy, and meadowsweet, and hardhack, and golden-rod, she opened the letter.

From By the Light of the Soul A Novel by Brett, Harold M.

Now it is a veritable mixing pat for the autumn colors to come, yellow with goldenrod, blue with asters, purple with Joe-Pye weed, rosy because of the hardhack, and rimmed with delicate gray-white of thoroughwort.

From Old Plymouth Trails by Packard, Winthrop

The lithe red fox glides across the upper pastures and weaves among the hardhack unchallenged, for this is not hunting weather.

From Minstrel Weather by Storm, Marian