Tormentil

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A low-growing herb (Potentilla erecta, syn. Potentilla tormentilla). countable, uncountable

    "1615, Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, London: William Jaggard, “A Dilucidation or Exposition of the Controuersies concerning the Historie of the Infant,” Question 31, p. 340, […] the hearbe Tormentill which hath seauen leaues resisteth all poysons."

Synonyms

All synonyms
shepherd's knotshepherd's knot

Example

More examples

"1615, Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, London: William Jaggard, “A Dilucidation or Exposition of the Controuersies concerning the Historie of the Infant,” Question 31, p. 340, […] the hearbe Tormentill which hath seauen leaues resisteth all poysons."

Etymology

From mediaeval Latin tormentilla (“minor pain”), perhaps referring to the conditions that the plant was used to treat.

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