tumbleweed

[ tuhm-buhl-weed ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

any of various plants, as Amaranthus albus, A. graecizans, or the Russian thistle, Salsola kali, whose branching upper parts become detached from the roots and are driven about by the wind.

tumbleweed

/ ˈtʌmbəlˌwiːd /

any densely branched plant that breaks off near the ground on withering and is rolled about by the wind, esp one of several amaranths of the western US and Australia

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90; tumble + weed ¹

Tumbleweeds blew across the road, and as I turned off the highway I spotted some of the area’s famous wild horses.

If you’re looking for a cutting-edge laptop that won’t leave tumbleweeds in your bank account, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is the one to get.

The proteins that control our lives are like rolling tumbleweeds.

Tumbleweeds are a-blowin’ down the aisles of your local bike shop.

The film opens on a tumbleweed blowing through the twilight streets of Los Angeles and closes with a cowboy soliloquy.

But then the movie kind of started skipping along like some tangled tumbleweed of confusion.

Elsewhere Andrew's engagements are met with a deafening silence and the roll of tumbleweed.

When twilight came he had found a perch in a pile of tumbleweed, far from the sheltering bushes by the river.

If he ever came up to a tumbleweed he would lie right down on it and go to sleep.

Besides the cactus, another form of vegetation which began to attract more and more of Ollie's attention was the red tumbleweed.

The ordinary tumbleweed, green when growing and gray when tumbling, had long been familiar to us, but the red variety was new.

The tumbleweed banked high wherever, in the mysterious dispensations of Providence, a call for tumbleweed had made itself heard.

April 24, 2024gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

Start each day with the Word of the Day in your inbox!

By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies.

Browse