moonwort
Americannoun
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any fern of the genus Botrychium, especially B. lunaria, a rare fern having fronds with crescent-shaped leaflets.
noun
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Also called (US): grape fern. any of various ferns of the genus Botrychium, esp B. lunaria, which has crescent-shaped leaflets
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another name for honesty
Etymology
Origin of moonwort
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.
Thin, green marsh fern circled lakes alongside moonwort, rattlesnake fern and horsetail.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2016
The moonwort is supposed to be a very supernatural plant, and to have the power of opening locks if you place a leaf of it in the keyhole.
From Monitress Merle by Angela Brazil
But it was only a big bunch of moonwort on a stained-glass-window sill, and the wind was blowing through a vacancy that should have been a date, and making Æolian music.
From Somehow Good by William Frend De Morgan
This power of the moonwort is said to be still believed in in Normandy, and a similar virtue was also ascribed to the vervain and the mandrake, both associated with rue.
From Storyology Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore by Benjamin Taylor
Culpeper, the herbalist, to illustrate the powers of the plant moonwort, tells of a wonderful incident that occurred to Lord Essex's horse, presumably when his army was here in 1644.
From Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts by Rosalind Northcote
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.
