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burnet

Syllabification: (bur·net)

Definition of burnet

noun

  • 1a herbaceous plant of the rose family, with globular pinkish flower heads and leaves composed of many small leaflets.
    • Genus Sanguisorba, family Rosaceae: several species, including the edible salad burnet (S. minor), which is often cultivated, and the spiny shrublike thorny burnet (S. spinosum), common in the eastern Mediterranean
  • 2a day-flying moth that typically has greenish-black wings marked with crimson spots.
    • Zygaena and other genera, family Zygaenidae

Origin:

Middle English (denoting a kind of dark brown woolen cloth): from Old French brunete, burnete (denoting brown cloth or a plant with brown flowers), diminutives of brun 'brown'

burnet in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of burnet in the British & World English dictionary