mayflower
noun
any of various plants that blossom in May, such as the hepatica or anemone in the United States, and the hawthorn or cowslip in England.
mayflower
American
[mey-flou-er]
/ ˈmeɪˌflaʊ ər /
noun
-
mayflowers
plural
-
any of various plants that blossom in May, such as the hepatica or anemone in the United States, and the hawthorn or cowslip in England.
-
Mayflower, the ship in which the Pilgrims sailed from Southampton, England, to North America in 1620.
Mayflower
1
British
/ ˈmeɪˌflaʊə /
noun
mayflower
2
British
/ ˈmeɪˌflaʊə /
noun
-
any of various plants that bloom in May
-
another name for trailing arbutus
-
another name for hawthorn cowslip marsh marigold
Mayflower
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mayflower
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Epigea” refers to Epigaea repens, commonly known as trailing arbutus or mayflower: a low-growing shrub that produces clusters of pink flowers.
From Slate ● May 17, 2016
I've looked on the mayflower, spring's earliest child,— It peeped from the snowdrift and modestly smiled; I've plucked the fair lily, arrayed in fair white, And drank in its fragrance with heartfelt delight.
From The Snow-Drop by Sarah S. Mower
It was intended as the thorn beneath the mayflower, but it was no such thing.
From The Pillars of the House, V1 by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Epigaea repens is the trailing arbutus or mayflower of Atlantic America.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 7 "Equation" to "Ethics" by Various
The mayflower of the English fields and hedgerows was preeminently the hawthorn, known often just as "the may."
From Old Plymouth Trails by Winthrop Packard
“It’s the talk of the town,” says portfolio manager and financial adviser Larry Glazer, managing partner of Mayflower Advisors in Boston.
From MarketWatch ● May 27, 2026
The Mayflower Compact quarter includes a woman on the front.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
Although they speak with a slight accent, I believe with all my heart that they are as American as someone whose ancestors came on the Mayflower.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
In Lillie’s second mystery, tensions rise between Rhode Island’s Narragansett tribe and the Founders Society’s Mayflower descendants after 300-year-old sacred remains are unearthed, then vanish from a Society campground.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2025
While Dasch was busy talking to Traynor, FBI agents were dispatched to Dasch's room at the Mayflower Hotel.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
The two met at an audition for a community theater production in Southern California, and Nixon proposed two years later, delivering her engagement ring in a basket filled with mayflowers.
From Time ● Mar. 13, 2012
The spring seeking motorist finds his first mayflowers there as the grade leads up Manomet heights and may expect them by the roadside anywhere, after that.
From Old Plymouth Trails by Winthrop Packard
I never saw any herb that so objected to gardin ground; might as well try to flourish mayflowers in a common front yard.
From The Queen's Twin and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett
In the spring we hunted for mayflowers, and sailed boats in the brooks, and gathered fluffy pussy-willows.
From The Story Hour by Nora Archibald Smith
The deck should be heaped with mayflowers, if this loveliest of our spring blossoms is to be had, and around the table at irregular intervals may be shallow bowls of the same flower.
From Gala Day Luncheons A Little Book of Suggestions by Caroline Benedict Burrell
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.
