Spurge
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Any plant of the genus Euphorbia, a diverse genus of over 2,000 species. uncountable, usually
"But cockle, spurge, according to their law / Might propagate their kind, with none to awe, / You'd think; a burr had been a treasure trove."
- 2 any of numerous plants of the genus Euphorbia; usually having milky often poisonous juice wordnet
- 3 Any plant of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. uncountable, usually
- 4 A plant resembling those in genus Euphorbia in some aspect of its appearance. uncountable, usually
- 1 To emit foam; to froth; said of the emission of yeast from beer during fermentation. intransitive
"The body's somthing noysome: 'tis a stale one; / Good troth it spurgeth very monstrously."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"But cockle, spurge, according to their law / Might propagate their kind, with none to awe, / You'd think; a burr had been a treasure trove."
Etymology
Etymology tree Old French espurgebor. Middle English spurge English spurge Inherited from Middle English spurge, from Old French espurge, from espurgier (“to purge”), from Latin expurgo (“I purge”); the bitter milky sap of these plants was formerly used as a purgative.
Uncertain, but likely closely related to etymology 1, thus a doublet of purge.
Related phrases
More for "spurge"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.