bee balm
Americannoun
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Also called Oswego tea. a wildflower, Monarda didyma, of the mint family, having thin, lance-shaped leaves and white, salmon, or intensely red flowers, growing along streams in temperate forests and widely cultivated in gardens.
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a plant, Melissa officinalis, having broad, opposite, serrated leaves and tight clusters of white, lemon-scented flowers that attract bees.
Etymology
Origin of bee balm
An Americanism dating back to 1840–50
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
My favorite way to prepare bee balm is as pesto.
From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2024
Aromatic lilies, lavender and bee balm fill the air with sweet scent in summer, while witch hazel, daphne and other flowering shrubs provide fragrance in quieter seasons.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 30, 2022
Lavender blooms sideways, reaching out for the sun from under a patch of red raspberries that grow rampant along with a smattering of purple-budded weeds, day lilies, black-eyed Susans, bee balm, lamb’s ear, irises.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2022
“I told him I wanted flowers every day of the year,” vanEngelsdorp said, but mainly what he insisted on were native plants: spiderwort, aster, bee balm.
From Washington Post ● May 22, 2020
The cardinal flower is the only flower more gaudy in red than this bee balm.
From The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. by Shaw, Ellen Eddy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
