daisy
- any of various composite plants the flowers of which have a yellow disk and white rays, as the English daisy and the oxeye daisy.
- Also called daisy ham. a small section of pork shoulder, usually smoked, boned, and weighing from two to four pounds.Compare picnic(def 3).
- Slang. someone or something of first-rate quality: That new car is a daisy.
- a cheddar cheese of cylindrical shape, weighing about 20 pounds.
- push up daisies, Informal. to be dead and buried.
Origin of daisy
daisy
- a small low-growing European plant, Bellis perennis, having a rosette of leaves and flower heads of yellow central disc flowers and pinkish-white outer ray flowers: family Asteraceae (composites)
- Also called: oxeye daisy, marguerite, moon daisy a Eurasian composite plant, Leucanthemum vulgare having flower heads with a yellow centre and white outer rays
- any of various other composite plants having conspicuous ray flowers, such as the Michaelmas daisy and Shasta daisy
- slang an excellent person or thing
- pushing up the daisies dead and buried
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for push up daisies
daisy
n.
Old English dægesege, from dæges eage "day's eye," because the petals open at dawn and close at dusk. (See day (n.) + eye (n.)). In Medieval Latin it was solis oculus "sun's eye." As a female proper name said to have been originally a pet form of Margaret (q.v.).
Daisy-cutter first attested 1791, originally of horses that trot with low steps; later of cricket (1889) and baseball hits that skim along the ground. Daisy-chain in the "group sex" sense is attested from 1941. Pushing up daisies "dead" is attested from 1918, but variants with the same meaning go back to 1842.
Idioms and Phrases with push up daisies
push up daisies
Be dead and buried, as in There is a cemetery full of heroes pushing up daisies. This slangy expression, alluding to flowers growing over a grave, was first recorded about 1918, in one of Wilfred Owen's poems about World War I.
daisy
In addition to the idiom beginning with daisy
- daisy chain
also see:
- fresh as a daisy
- push up daisies