What does "cudbear" mean?

A violet-red dye powder, prepared from certain lichens, especially Ochrolechia tartarea.

What is a synonym for "cudbear"?

Common synonyms include: archil, cudweed, cudweed, orchil, orchil.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A violet-red dye powder, prepared from certain lichens, especially Ochrolechia tartarea. countable, historical, uncountable
"ORCHELLA WEEDS. The cylindrical and flat species of Roccella used in the manufacture of Orchil or Archil, and Cudbear, are so called by the makers."
2
a purplish dye obtained from orchil lichens wordnet
3
A rim lichen, crabseye lichen (Ochrolechia tartarea. countable, uncountable

"ORCHELLA WEEDS. The cylindrical and flat species of Roccella used in the manufacture of Orchil or Archil, and Cudbear, are so called by the makers."

Corrupted from the name of Dr. Cuthbert Gordon, a Scotsman, who patented the process of manufacture.

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