Mezereon

//məˈzɪəriən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An ornamental shrub, Daphne mezereum, having purple flowers and bright red fruit. countable, uncountable

    "We, Greville, are happy in these parks and forests: we were happy in my close winter-walk of box and laurustinus and mezereon. In our earlier days did we not emboss our bosoms with the crocusses, and shake them almost unto shedding with our transports!"

  2. 2
    small European deciduous shrub with fragrant lilac-colored flowers followed by red berries on highly toxic twigs wordnet
  3. 3
    The dried bark of this plant, once used as a vesicant. countable, uncountable

Example

More examples

"We, Greville, are happy in these parks and forests: we were happy in my close winter-walk of box and laurustinus and mezereon. In our earlier days did we not emboss our bosoms with the crocusses, and shake them almost unto shedding with our transports!"

Etymology

From Medieval Latin mezereon, mezereum, from Arabic مَازَرْيُون (māzaryūn).

Related phrases

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