male fern

American  

noun

1. a bright-green fern, Dryopteris filix-mas, of Europe and northeastern North America.

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male fern British  

noun

1. a fern, Dryopteris filix-mas, having scaly stalks and pinnate fronds with kidney-shaped spore-producing bodies on the underside: family Polypodiaceae

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Etymology

Origin of male fern

First recorded in 1555–65

Example Sentences

Occasionally, by the side of a copse, we may come upon a great bed of the male fern, which frequently keeps green all the winter.

From Chatterbox, 1905. by Various

One of these is the cut-leaf black walnut which has the ordinary compound leaf but whose individual leaflets are so scalloped and serrated that they resemble a male fern.

From Growing Nuts in the North A Personal Story of the Author's Experience of 33 Years with Nut Culture in Minnesota and Wisconsin by Weschcke, Carl

They are cowhage, scammony, male fern root, calomel, gamboge, tin, and turpentine.

From Enquire Within Upon Everything The Great Victorian Domestic Standby by Anonymous

As a rule the male fern acts promptly and well.

From Mother's Remedies Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers of the United States and Canada by Ritter, Thomas Jefferson

Infusion of cusco is sometimes used as an anthelmintic, so is wormwood, and the liquid extract of male fern, and in America spigelia root and pumpkin seeds.

From Dogs and All about Them by Leighton, Robert