Scabious

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various herbaceous plants of the genus Scabiosa.

    "The grassy track, so gay with scabious and bedstraw, was snow-white at the bottom of its ruts."

  2. 2
    any of various plants of the genus Scabiosa wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of several plants of the genus Knautia.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Having scabs.
  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to scabies.

Synonyms

All synonyms
scabiosaflakyflocculentfurfuraceousscabbyscabrous

Example

More examples

"The grassy track, so gay with scabious and bedstraw, was snow-white at the bottom of its ruts."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Medieval Latin scabiōsus (“scabious”), from Latin scabiēs (see scabies); partly reinterpretable as scab + -ious.

Etymology 2

] From Medieval Latin scabiōsa, substantivized from scabiōsus (“scabious”), see Etymology 1; the name comes from their medical use in the Middle Ages to cure scabies and leprosy.

Related phrases

blue scabiousdevil's bit scabiousfield scabioussheep's bit scabioussweet scabious

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