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

Example Sentences

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 Saylor, Henry H. (Henry Hodgman)

Flowers of sulphur, two ounces; hog's lard, four ounces; white hellebore powder, half an ounce: oil of lavender, sixty drops.

From Enquire Within Upon Everything The Great Victorian Domestic Standby by Anonymous

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 Japp, Alexander H. (Alexander Hay)

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 Disraeli, Isaac

For this purpose, aloes, tartrate of antimony, white hellebore, etc., are used.

From Cattle and Their Diseases Embracing Their History and Breeds, Crossing and Breeding, And Feeding and Management; With the Diseases to which They are Subject, And The Remedies Best Adapted to their Cure by Jennings, Robert