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 popular name of a plant, also known as the sweet gale or gaul, sweet willow, bog or Dutch myrtle.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various

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

Erasmus is, much more than Aretino or Castiglione, the representative of the spirit of his age, one over whose Christian sentiment the sweet gale of Antiquity had passed.

From Erasmus and the Age of Reformation by Huizinga, Johan

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

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)