tumbleweed

[tuhm-buhl-weed]

noun

1. 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 /

noun

1. 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of tumbleweed¹

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

Example Sentences

The American West is in the grip of a tumbleweed takeover.

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West Texas is dotted with tumbleweeds, underutilized oil and gas infrastructure and ranches.

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L.A. was a tumbleweed boomtown whose population had doubled in one decade and quintupled in the next, morphing from village to metropolis in a generation.

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But a rival campaigner now calls them the "tumbleweed Tories", claiming they're nowhere to be seen on the ground.

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"We came through the airport and it was like tumbleweed," McIntosh says.

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