woodbine

American  

[wood-bahyn] / ˈwʊdˌbaɪn /

noun

1. any of several climbing vines, especially those of genera Lonicera of the honeysuckle family and Parthenocissus of the grape family.

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woodbine British  

/ ˈwuːdˌbaɪn /

noun

1. a honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, of Europe, SW Asia, and N Africa, having fragrant creamy flowers

2. a related North American plant, L. caprifolium

3. another name for Virginia creeper

4. obsolete an Englishman

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Etymology

Origin of woodbine

First recorded before 900; Middle English wodebind(e), Old English wudubind, wudebinde, equivalent to wudu “wood” + bind “binding”; see origin at wood ¹, bind

Example Sentences

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: .

From Time Magazine Archive

Cool and resourceful, she "smells out money like a honey bee smells out woodbine."

From Time Magazine Archive

As clings the woodbine to the new-felled tree, I cling to him, though not a hope remains.

From Joan of Arc A Play in Five Acts by Sargant, Jane Alice

Bitter-sweet on porch and paling, woodbine and white-starred clematis, and the deep hum of bees; and in the sunlit garden poppies, red as the blood of martyrs.

From Cardigan by Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)

It was October—the carnival time of the year, When on the ground red apples lie In piles like jewels shining, And redder still on old stone walls Are leaves of woodbine twining.

From The Story of a Doctor's Telephone?Told by His Wife by Firebaugh, Ellen M.