orchis

American  

[awr-kis] / ˈɔr kɪs /

noun

1. any orchid.

2. any of various terrestrial orchids, especially of the genus Orchis, of temperate regions, having spikelike flowers.

3. fringed orchis.

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orchis British  

/ ˈɔːkɪs /

noun

1. any terrestrial orchid of the N temperate genus Orchis, having fleshy tubers and spikes of typically pink flowers

2. any of various temperate or tropical orchids of the genus Habenaria, such as the fringed orchis

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Etymology

Origin of orchis

1555–65; < Latin < Greek órchis testicle, plant with roots like testicles

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

orchis

The same can be said of salep, a fine powder ground from dried orchis tubers used in the Middle East to thicken ice cream.

From Newsweek

There we found yellow iris, and the purple bee orchis, and fox-gloves.

From An Isle in the Water by Katharine Tynan

The flowering rush spreads its pale pink blossoms; a deeper crimson is the marsh orchis showing its spires among the drooping clusters of the waxy-pink, cross-leaved heath, and the green or pale and rosy-tinted bog-mosses.

From The Broom-Squire by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

Wayside shrines are decked with laburnum boughs and iris blossoms plucked from the copse-woods, and where spires of purple and pink orchis variegate the thin, fine grass.

From New Italian sketches by John Addington Symonds

At dawn July came o'er the hills— O light of eye and deep heart-thrills, As she beheld the glowing orchis Whose splendor now all the meadow fills!

From Song-waves by Theodore H. (Theodore Harding) Rand

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