white hellebore

American  

[hwahyt hel-uh-bawr, wahyt] / ˈʰwaɪt ˈhɛl əˌbɔr, ˈwaɪt /

noun

1. a false hellebore, Veratrum album, with clusters of white flowers, native to Europe and western Asia: now rarely used in medicine, its alkaloids were once used in a number of treatments, as for high blood pressure, but accidental poisoning is due mostly to the plant’s resemblance to an ingestible European gentian.

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Etymology

Origin of white hellebore

First recorded in 1400–50

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

white hellebore

Powdered white hellebore, dusted on the foliage, or the solution of whale oil soap mentioned for the Rose Thrip, will keep it in check.

From Making a Rose Garden by Henry H. (Henry Hodgman) Saylor

Take the brain—we have a disease, and we treat it with white hellebore.

From The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Alexander H. (Alexander Hay) Japp

For instance, they used white hellebore to cure their wounds, and John Josselyn tells us exactly how.

From The Old English Herbals by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde

Among other philosophers, one of the most famous disputants of antiquity, Carneades, was accustomed to take copious doses of white hellebore, a great aperient, as a preparation to refute the dogmas of the stoics.

From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 2 by Isaac Disraeli

This is a white, yellowish powder made from the roots of the white hellebore plant.

From Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) by L. H. (Liberty Hyde) Bailey

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