verbena

[ ver-bee-nuh ]

/ vərˈbi nə /

noun

any of various plants of the genus Verbena, especially any of several hybrid species cultivated for their showy flower clusters.Compare verbena family.

any of various other plants, as the lemon verbena or sand verbena.

Nearby words

Origin of verbena

1560–70; < Medieval Latin verbēna, Latin: leafy twig; see vervain

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for verbena

This was possibly the verbena, well known in folk-medicine as vervain, and much used in the Middle Ages.
Of Six Medival Women|Alice Kemp-Welch
First he flew to a beautiful garden, full of roses and verbena and everything sweet.
Fairies I Have Met|Maud Margaret Key Stawell
He groaned, and sat down heavily on my low wall, crushing a branch of verbena.
The Romance of His Life|Mary Cholmondeley
Half an hour later we crossed the tracks at Verbena and turned into a broad marl road.
In Search of the Unknown|Robert W. Chambers

You may be, but she will never forgive you all the same, said Jimmy slowly rising, and brushing traces of verbena from his person.
The Romance of His Life|Mary Cholmondeley

British Dictionary definitions for verbena

verbena

/ (vɜːˈbiːnə) /

noun

any plant of the verbenaceous genus Verbena, chiefly of tropical and temperate America, having red, white, or purple fragrant flowers: much cultivated as garden plantsSee also vervain

any of various similar or related plants, esp the lemon verbena

Word Origin for verbena

C16: via Medieval Latin, from Latin: sacred bough used by the priest in religious acts, vervain

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for verbena

verbena

genus of plants, the vervain, 1560s, from Latin verbena "leaves or twigs of olive, myrtle, laurel, or other sacred plants employed in religious ceremonies," from PIE *werbh- (cf. Lithuanian virbas "twig, branch, scion, rod"), from root *werb- "to turn, bend" (see warp (v.)).