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sego lily

American  

noun

  1. a plant, Calochortus nuttallii, of the lily family, native to the western U.S., having showy, bell-shaped flowers: the state flower of Utah.

  2. its edible root.

Etymology

Origin of sego lily

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

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.

The ephemeral bloom of a sego lily peeks from the toe of a ninety-foot stone arch, and canyon wrens call back and forth in plaintive tones from a thatch of scrub oak.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

For instance, the sego lily bulbs, upon which the Utah pioneers subsisted for several seasons of famine, may possibly be made a cultivated crop.

From Dry-Farming : a System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low Rainfall by Widtsoe, John Andreas

Here we found a sego lily, one of the most beautiful of flowers.

From Tales of lonely trails by Grey, Zane

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.