Cactus

//ˈkæktəs// adj, name, noun, slang

adj, name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any member of the family Cactaceae, a family of flowering New World succulent plants suited to a hot, semi-desert climate.

    "On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns."

  2. 2
    any succulent plant of the family Cactaceae native chiefly to arid regions of the New World and usually having spines wordnet
  3. 3
    Any succulent plant with a thick fleshy stem bearing spines but no leaves, such as euphorbs.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Non-functional, broken, exhausted, dead. Australia, New-Zealand, not-comparable, slang

    "I wouldn't mind throwing it away if it's cactus except for the VCR part which works fine, so then I'd be up for a new VCR as well."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A city in Texas.
  2. 2
    An unincorporated community in California.

Synonyms

All synonyms
bramblebriarbrierbristleburrcatchweed

Example

More examples

"Your lips are soft like the surface of a cactus."

Etymology

From taxonomic name Cactus, a name given in 1752 by Linnaeus for a genus of cacti (now superseded by the genus name Mammillaria), from Latin cactus, from Ancient Greek κάκτος (káktos, “cardoon”), possibly of Pre-Greek origin.

Related phrases

Aaron's beard cactusAaron's-beard cactusAcanthocereus pentagonus)Cactus LeagueCactus virus XChristmas cactusEaster cactusEchinocereus enneacanthus)Jacob cactusKnowlton's cactusPeruvian apple cactusSteinbach's crown cactus (Rebutia steinbachii

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.