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flower

Pronunciation: /ˈflaʊə/
Translate flower | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of flower

noun

  • 1the seed-bearing part of a plant, consisting of reproductive organs (stamens and carpels) that are typically surrounded by a brightly coloured corolla (petals) and a green calyx (sepals).
  • a flower together with its stalk, picked for use as a decoration:a bunch of flowers
  • [mass noun] the state or period in which a plant’s flowers have developed and opened:the roses were just coming into flower
  • Northern English informal used as a friendly form of address, especially to a young girl or woman:all right then, flower?
  • 2 (the flower of) the finest individuals out of a number of people or things:he wasted the flower of French youth on his dreams of empire

verb

[no object]
  • 1(of a plant) produce flowers; bloom:Michaelmas daisies can flower as late as October
  • [with object] induce (a plant) to produce flowers.
  • 2be in or reach an optimum stage of development; develop fully and richly:she flowered into as striking a beauty as her mother (as noun flowering)the flowering of Viennese intellectual life

Derivatives

flowerless

adjective

flower-like

adjective

Origin:

Middle English flour, from Old French flour, flor, from Latin flos, flor-. The original spelling was no longer in use by the late 17th century except in its specialized sense 'ground grain' (see flour)

flower in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of flower in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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