| / English Dictionary |
LAVENDER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A pale purple color
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("lavender" is a kind of...):
purple; purpleness (a purple color or pigment)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Any of various Old World aromatic shrubs or subshrubs with usually mauve or blue flowers; widely cultivated
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("lavender" is a kind of...):
bush; shrub (a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lavender"):
English lavender; Lavandula angustifolia; Lavandula officinalis (aromatic Mediterranean shrub widely cultivated for its lilac flowers which are dried and used in sachets)
French lavender; Lavandula stoechas (shrubby greyish lavender of southwestern Europe having usually reddish-purple flowers)
French lavender; Lavandula latifolia; spike lavender (Mediterranean plant with pale purple flowers that yields spike lavender oil)
Holonyms ("lavender" is a member of...):
genus Lavandula; Lavandula (lavender)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of a pale purple color
Synonyms:
lavender; lilac; lilac-colored
Classified under:
Similar:
chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)
Context examples:
Perillyl alcohol, a substance found in English lavender, is being studied in cancer prevention and treatment.
(English lavender, NCI Dictionary)
"Upon my word, here's a state of things!" cried the old lady, taking the seat of honor prepared for her, and settling the folds of her lavender moire with a great rustle.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I beg that you will bring me a little lavender water, landlord, for the smell of this crowd is appalling.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In the meantime, I put myself on a short allowance of bear's grease, wholly abandoned scented soap and lavender water, and sold off three waistcoats at a prodigious sacrifice, as being too luxurious for my stern career.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Marianne, now looking dreadfully white, and unable to stand, sunk into her chair, and Elinor, expecting every moment to see her faint, tried to screen her from the observation of others, while reviving her with lavender water.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Smart maids, with the rosiest children I ever saw, handsome girls, looking half asleep, dandies in queer English hats and lavender kids lounging about, and tall soldiers, in short red jackets and muffin caps stuck on one side, looking so funny I longed to sketch them.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
She upset the tray of needles, forgot the silesia was to be 'twilled' till it was cut off, gave the wrong change, and covered herself with confusion by asking for lavender ribbon at the calico counter.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year's shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Sure I did. I was going to wear it tonight, but it was too big in the bust and had to be altered. It was gas blue with lavender beads. Two hundred and sixty-five dollars.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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