tormentil

American  

[tawr-men-til] / ˈtɔr mɛn tɪl /

noun

1. a low European plant, Potentilla erecta, of the rose family, having small, bright-yellow flowers, and a strongly astringent root used in medicine and in tanning and dyeing.

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tormentil British  

/ ˈtɔːməntɪl /

noun

1. Also called: bloodroot.  a rosaceous downy perennial plant, Potentilla erecta, of Europe and W Asia, having serrated leaves, four-petalled yellow flowers, and an astringent root used in medicine, tanning, and dyeing

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Etymology

Origin of tormentil

1350–1400; Middle English tormentille < Medieval Latin tormentilla, equivalent to Latin torment ( um ) torment + -illa diminutive suffix

Example Sentences

Sometimes they scuttled along open turf, colored like a tapestry meadow with self-heal, centaury and tormentil.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

Here and there a yellow tormentil showed in the grass, a late harebell or a few shreds of purple bloom on a brown, crisping tuft of self-heal.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

Two ounces each of bistory root, tormentil root, oak bark, and comfrey root, boil in three quarts of water down to one pint, strain and add one tablespoonful of ground ginger.

From Mother's Remedies Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers of the United States and Canada by Ritter, Thomas Jefferson

The little yellow flowers of tormentil are common in the grass as autumn approaches, and grasshoppers, which do not seem plentiful here, sing there.

From The Toilers of the Field by Jefferies, Richard

They made tea sometimes of the tormentil, whose little yellow flowers appear along the furrows.

From Round About a Great Estate by Jefferies, Richard