mayweed

[mey-weed]

noun

1. a composite plant, Anthemis cotula, native to Europe and Asia but naturalized in North America, having pungent, rank-smelling foliage and flower heads with a yellow disk and white rays.

mayweed

/ ˈmeɪˌwiːd /

noun

1. Also called: dog fennel.  stinking mayweed. a widespread Eurasian weedy plant, Anthemis cotula, having evil-smelling leaves and daisy-like flower heads: family Asteraceae (composites)

2. a similar and related plant, Matricaria maritima , with scentless leaves

Word History and Origins

Origin of mayweed¹

1545–55; obsolete mayth mayweed ( Middle English maithe, Old English mægtha ) + weed ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of mayweed¹

C16: changed from Old English mægtha mayweed + _weed ¹

Example Sentences

The earth was soft and crumbling, with a scattering of the weeds that are found in cultivated fields—fumitory, charlock, pimpernel and mayweed, all growing in the green gloom under the bean leaves.

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As tall as the young corn the mayweed fringes the arable fields with its white rays and yellow centre, somewhat as the broad moon-daisies stand in the grass.

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Some knotty knapweeds stay in out-of-the-way places, where the scythe has not been; some bunches of mayweed, too, are visible in the corners of the stubble.

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Out from that trench, sometimes stealthily slipping between the flattened fern-stalks, came a weasel, and, running through the plantains and fringe-like mayweed or stray pimpernel which covered the neglected ground, made for the straw-rick.

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By this time generally the corn is high above the mayweed, but this year the flower is level with its shelter.

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