ribwort

American  

[rib-wurt, -wawrt] / ˈrɪbˌwɜrt, -ˌwɔrt /

noun

1. English plantain.

---

ribwort British  

/ ˈrɪbˌwɜːt /

noun

1. Also called: ribgrass.  a Eurasian plant, Plantago lanceolata , that has lancelike ribbed leaves, which form a rosette close to the ground, and a dense spike of small white flowers: family Plantaginaceae See also plantain 1

---

Etymology

Origin of ribwort

1325–75; Middle English. See rib ¹, wort ²

Example Sentences

Consider the common lawn weed Plantago lanceolata, otherwise known as ribwort or buckhorn plantain, which has the longest dormancy in the United States, according to the report.

From Science Daily • Mar. 6, 2024

Many home-grown substitutes were used in Revolutionary times for tea: ribwort was a favorite one; strawberry and currant leaves, sage, thorough-wort, and "Liberty Tea," made from the four-leaved loosestrife.

From Home Life in Colonial Days by Earle, Alice Morse

Rib′-band, a piece of timber bolted longitudinally to the ribs of a vessel to hold them in position; Rib′bing, an arrangement of ribs; Rib′-grass, the ribwort plantain.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

Browne alludes to the primrose, which "maidens as a true-love in their bosoms place;" and in the North of England the kemps or spikes of the ribwort plantain are used as love-charms.

From The Folk-lore of Plants by Dyer, T. F. Thiselton (Thomas Firminger Thiselton)

The land here is of an excellent soil, and the climate is quite healthy; the soil being full of good herbs, as mints, calamint, plantain, ribwort, trefoil, scabious, and such like.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 by Kerr, Robert