posy

[poh-zee]

noun, plural po·sies.

a flower, nosegay, or bouquet.

Archaic. a brief motto or the like, as one inscribed within a ring.

Nearby words

Origin of posy

1400–50; late Middle English; syncopated variant of poesy

Can be confusedpoesy posey posy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for posies

The Queen was presented with posies of flowers by children as she left the chapel.
Sophie Dazzles in Electric Blue at Royal's Easter Service|Tom Sykes|March 31, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Some of these posies and inscriptions are very appropriate and tender; others are quaint and whimsical.
Finger-Ring Lore|William Jones
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries posies were generally placed outside the ring.
Finger-Ring Lore|William Jones
The girls carried their "posies," as they called them, in their neatly folded pocket-handkerchiefs.
O. T.|Hans Christian Andersen

But you have no idea how they brightened up, and how glad they looked when they took the posies.
Harper's Young People, April 12, 1881|Various
I did find some posies, all yellow and round and—posies runned away, too.
The Sun Maid|Evelyn Raymond

British Dictionary definitions for posies

posy

noun plural -sies

a small bunch of flowers or a single flower; nosegay

archaic a brief motto or inscription, esp one on a trinket or a ring

Word Origin for posy

C16: variant of poesy

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

Word Origin and History for posies

posy

also posey, 1530s, "line of verse engraved on the inner surface of a ring," from poesy "poetry; a passage of poetry," which is recorded in this sense from early 15c. Meaning "flower, bouquet" first recorded 1570s, from notion of the language of flowers.