moonseed

[ moon-seed ]

noun
  1. any climbing plant of the genus Menispermum, having greenish-white flowers and crescent-shaped seeds.

Origin of moonseed

1
First recorded in 1730–40; moon + seed

Words Nearby moonseed

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use moonseed in a sentence

  • When she finished she picked up a trailing vine of moonseed.

    The Harvester | Gene Stratton Porter
  • You see it on cultivated plums, grapes, and apples, but never in any such perfection as on moonseed and black haws in the woods.

    The Harvester | Gene Stratton Porter
  • She learned the uses and prices of the plant, and also made drawings of cohosh, moonseed and bloodroot.

    The Harvester | Gene Stratton Porter
  • These small fractions of her light remind one of the plant called moonseed,—as if the moon were sowing it in such places.

    Excursions and Poems | Henry David Thoreau
  • Fig. 231, staminate, and 232, pistillate flower of moonseed.

British Dictionary definitions for moonseed

moonseed

/ (ˈmuːnˌsiːd) /


noun
  1. any menispermaceous climbing plant of the genus Menispermum and related genera, having red or black fruits with crescent-shaped or ring-shaped seeds

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