ragged robin

American  

noun

1. a plant, Lychnis flos-cuculi, of the pink family, having pink or white flowers with dissected petals.

---

ragged robin British  

noun

1. Also called: cuckooflower.  a caryophyllaceous plant, Lychnis floscuculi , native to Europe and Asia, that has pink or white flowers with ragged petals See also catchfly

---

Etymology

Origin of ragged robin

First recorded in 1735–45

Example Sentences

They went slowly along the foot of the bank, pushing in and out of the clumps of red campion and ragged robin.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

Forget-me-nots jewelled the banks; ragged robin looked roguishly from, clumps of bushes; the scent of hay seemed to fill the world.

From Sparrows: the story of an unprotected girl by Newte, Horace W. C. (Horace Wykeham Can)

Doris brought in the first violets on the fifteenth, with a few wisps of saxifrage and ragged robin.

From Kit of Greenacre Farm by Forrester, Izola L. (Izola Louise)

The pink lychnis or ragged robin grows among the grasses; the iris flowers higher on the shore.

From The Hills and the Vale by Jefferies, Richard

A jar of buttercups and fool's-parsley in the window-bottom kept her away in the meadows, where in the lush grass the moon-daisies were half-submerged, and a spray of pink ragged robin.

From The Rainbow by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)