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

See Examples For:

tormentil

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

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

From Round About a Great Estate by Richard Jefferies

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 Thomas Jefferson Ritter

Here is herb Robert in flower—its leaves are scarlet; a leaf of St. John's-wort, too, has become scarlet; the bramble leaves are many shades of crimson; one plant of tormentil has turned yellow.

From Field and Hedgerow Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies by Richard Jefferies