[f. BOTTLE sb.2 + BRUSH.]
1. A brush for cleaning bottles, with bristles diverging on all sides from a central stem.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., 190, note. Antennæ; plain in the Female [Gnat], in the Male feathered, somewhat like a Bottle-brush.
1883. Leisure Ho., 473/1. Suggestive of gigantic feather-brushes, or rather bottle-brushes.
2. Bot. The popular name of the Horse-tail (Equisetum) and Mare’s-tail (Hippuris vulgaris), from their shape. b. Also applied to an Australian shrub, the Banksia marginata (Rhind’s Veg. Kingd., 1874, 711), and to the Metrosideros floribunda (The Garden, 10 June (1882), 417/3).
3. attrib. and in comb.
1851. Q. Rev., Dec., 40. Bottle-brush-flowered, zigzag-leaved, grey-tinted, odd-looking things.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 265. The … Entada scandens … bears an insignificant yellow, bottle-brush, acacia-like flower.
