wake-robin

American  

[weyk-rob-in] / ˈweɪkˌrɒb ɪn /

noun

1. the cuckoopint.

2. any of various plants belonging to the genus Trillium, native to eastern North America, of the lily family, as T. erectum, having rank-smelling purple, yellow, or white flowers.

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wake-robin British  

noun

1. any of various North American herbaceous plants of the genus Trillium, such as T. grandiflorum, having a whorl of three leaves and three-petalled solitary flowers: family Trilliaceae

2. any of various aroid plants, esp the cuckoopint

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Etymology

Origin of wake-robin

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

Among the names of the Arum may be noticed "parson in the pulpit," "cows and calves," "lords and ladies," and "wake-robin."

From The Folk-lore of Plants by Dyer, T. F. Thiselton (Thomas Firminger Thiselton)

A meal of grubs and peppery wake-robin roots left him happy, but still he rambled on, following his nose and alert for any new adventure.

From Followers of the Trail by Stecher, William F. (William Frederick)

You will know where to find the yellow violet, and the wake-robin, and the pink lady-slipper, and the scarlet sage, and the fringed gentian.

From The Blue Flower by Van Dyke, Henry

On the three-leaved table which once carried the gay flower of the wake-robin, there was a scarlet lump like a red pepper escaped to the forest and run wild.

From Little Rivers; a book of essays in profitable idleness by Van Dyke, Henry

Finally we come to where there is less grass but more dead leaves and leaf mould, and here is the first real herbaceous flower of this spring, the dwarf white trillium, or wake-robin.

From Some Spring Days in Iowa by Lazell, Frederick John