wildflower

or wild flow·er

[ wahyld-flou-er ]

noun
  1. the flower of a plant that normally grows in fields, forests, etc., without deliberate cultivation.

  2. the plant itself.

Origin of wildflower

1
First recorded in 1790–1800; wild + flower

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use wildflower in a sentence

  • On several afternoons we made further trips to the deep woods after wild-flower plants, and set them in along our brook.

    The Idyl of Twin Fires | Walter Prichard Eaton
  • A tiny wild flower blossomed by his foot—he plucked it, and pressed its petals open with his finger.

    Alone | Marion Harland
  • The one was a hot-house plant, the other a garden flower, or even a wild flower.

  • Sadoc pointed to an Egyptian child sleeping a few paces off with a wild-flower grasped in its little hand.

    Sarchedon | G. J. (George John) Whyte-Melville
  • The poppy is our best-known wild flower, planted by Mother Nature before white men ever visited these shores.

    Stories of California | Ella M. Sexton

British Dictionary definitions for wild flower

wild flower

noun
  1. Also: wildflower any flowering plant that grows in an uncultivated state

  2. the flower of such a plant

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