daisy

[dey-zee]

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noun, plural dai·sies.

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.

Idioms

push up daisies, Informal. to be dead and buried.

Origin of daisy

before 1000; Middle English dayesye, Old English dægesēge the day's eye

Related formsdai·sied, adjective

Can be confuseddais daisy days

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

Related Words for push up daisies

croak, die, expire, succumb

British Dictionary definitions for push up daisies

daisy

noun plural -sies

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

Derived Formsdaisied, adjective

Word Origin for daisy

Old English dægesēge day's eye

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 push up daisies

daisy

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