Also 8 cime. [a. F. cime, cyme, in the sense ‘top, summit’ (12th c. in Hatzf.):—pop. L. cima = L. cyma (see above); in the Bot. sense an 18th c. adaptation of the ancient L.]
† 1. (cime.) A ‘head’ (of unexpanded leaves, etc.). Obs. rare.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Sallet, The Buds and tender Cime of Nettles by some eaten raw, by others boiled.
2. Bot. (cyme.) A species of inflorescence wherein the primary axis bears a single terminal flower which develops first, the system being continued by axes of secondary and higher orders which develop successively in like manner; a centrifugal or definite inflorescence: opposed to RACEME. Applied esp. to compound inflorescences of this type forming a more or less flat head.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., v. 55. The arrangement of the flowers in the elder is called a cyme.
1854. S. Thomson, Wild Fl., III. (ed. 4), 250. The meadow-sweet, with its crowded cymes.
3. Arch. = CYMA.
1877. Blackmore, Erema, III. xlvii. 106. This is what we call a cyme-joint, a cohesion of two curved surfaces.
Cyme (Shaks. Macb., V. iii. 55, 1st Folio), supposed to be an error for cynne, SENNA.
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. iii. 55. What Rubarb, Cyme, or what Purgatiue drugge Would scowre these English hence.
