hemlock

noun

• 1a highly poisonous European plant of the parsley family, with a purple-spotted stem, fernlike leaves, small white flowers, and an unpleasant smell.

  • Conium maculatum, family Umbelliferae
• a sedative or poisonous potion obtained from the hemlock plant. Such a potion was said to have been used to poison Socrates.

• 2 (also hemlock fir or spruce) a coniferous North American tree with dark green foliage that is said to smell like hemlock when crushed, grown chiefly for timber and pulp production, and also grown in Europe as an ornamental.

  • Genus Tsuga, family Pinaceae: several species, in particular eastern hemlock (T. canadensis) and Carolina hemlock (T. caroliniana)