Nightshade

//ˈnaɪt.ʃeɪd// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of the poisonous plants belonging to the genus Solanum, especially black nightshade or woody nightshade.
  2. 2
    any of numerous shrubs or herbs or vines of the genus Solanum; most are poisonous though many bear edible fruit wordnet
  3. 3
    Any plant of the wider Solanaceae family, including the nightshades as well as tomato, potato, eggplant, and deadly nightshade. colloquial
  4. 4
    Belladonna or deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna).
  5. 5
    Any of several plants likened to nightshade, usually because of similar dark-colored berries.

Synonyms

All synonyms
solanum

Example

More examples

"The belladonna is a nightshade."

Etymology

From Middle English nyȝtschade, niȝteschode, nyght shade, from Old English nihtsċada, from Proto-West Germanic *nahtskadō (“nightshade”), corresponding to night + shade. Compare Dutch nachtschade (“nightshade”), German Nachtschatten (“nightshade”).

Related phrases

African nightshadeAmerican nightshadeArgentine nightshadeBahama nightshadeEthiopian nightshadeIndian nightshadeJamaican nightshadeMalabar nightshadeTorrey's nightshadeWest Indian nightshadeball nightshadebeaked nightshade

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