What does "charlock" mean?

Any of several yellow-flowered cruciferous weeds of grain fields, especially wild mustard (Rhamphospermum arvense, syn. Sinapis arvensis).

Charlock

Common synonyms include: field mustard, wild mustard, brassica kaber, chadlock, charlock mustard, crunchweed.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any of several yellow-flowered cruciferous weeds of grain fields, especially wild mustard (Rhamphospermum arvense, syn. Sinapis arvensis). countable, uncountable
2
weedy Eurasian plant often a pest in grain fields wordnet

From Middle English charlok, cherlok, from Old English ċyrlic, ċirlic, ċerlic. Further origin unknown.

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