sweet gale

American  

noun

1. an aromatic shrub, Myrica gale, of marshes, having lance-shaped leaves and yellowish fruit.

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sweet gale British  

noun

1. Often shortened to: gale.  Also called: bog myrtle.  a shrub, Myrica gale, of northern swamp regions, having yellow catkin-like flowers and aromatic leaves: family Myricaceae

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Etymology

Origin of sweet gale

First recorded in 1630–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sweet gale

The sweet gale, Myrica Gale, and the sage, Salvia officinalis, were also similarly employed.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 6 "Home, Daniel" to "Hortensius, Quintus" by Various

Harke you, Madam, the sweet gale of one Clarences breath, with this his paper sayle blowes me hether.

From A Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 3 by Bullen, A. H. (Arthur Henry)

It is a shrub much like our sweet gale in Europe, and its leaves are very odorous, and, even when dried, retain their fragrance. 

From An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha by Hamilton, Francis

The sweet gale, or Dutch myrtle, grows in moorland fens.

From Two Decades A History of the First Twenty Years' Work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York by Graham, Frances W.

The sweet gale next appears on its borders, and drift-wood, much of it rotten and comminuted, is thrown up on the exterior bank, together with some roots and stems of larger trees.

From The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 by Various