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Crocus
//ˈkɹoʊ.kəs// noun, slang
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
"Other foreign terms have become so thoroughly Anglicised as to adopt English plurals, and it is sometimes difficult to decide whether the English or the original foreign form is the more correct. None but a pedant would speak of ‘the chori of an opera,’ ‘the croci in a garden,’ or ‘the dogmata of the church;’ […]"
- 2 A fraudulent doctor; a quack. obsolete, slang
"The characteristics of the crocus or vagabond quack doctor appear to find a sardonically appropriate origin in the Erse cruach-bhas, a bloody death."
- 3 Burlap. Jamaica, Trinidad-and-Tobago, uncountable
"a crocus bag"
- 4 any of numerous low-growing plants of the genus Crocus having slender grasslike leaves and white or yellow or purple flowers; native chiefly to the Mediterranean region but widely cultivated wordnet
- 5 Any of various similar flowering plants, such as autumn crocus and prairie crocus.
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- 6 A deep yellow powder, the oxide of some metal (especially iron), calcined to a red or deep yellow colour. obsolete
Etymology
Etymology 1
Learned borrowing from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”), from an ancient Semitic language.
Etymology 2
Perhaps related to croak.
See also for "crocus"
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Unscramble this word: crocus