Flower sb.

Forms: 3–4 flur(e, 3–7 flour(e, 4–7 flowr(e, (4 flor, flowur, 6 flore, Sc. flouir, 7 floor), 5– flower, (8, 9 poet. flow’r). See also FLOUR. [ME. flour, flur, a. OF. flour, flur, flor (Fr. fleur) = Pr. flour, flor, Sp., Pg., and OIt. flor (It. fiore):—L. flér-em, flés, f. Aryan root *bhlé-: see BLOW v.²]

  1.  A complex organ in phenogamous plants, comprising a group of reproductive organs and its envelopes. In the popular use of the word, the characteristic feature of a flower is the ‘colored’ (not green) envelope, and the term is not applied where this is absent, unless there is obvious resemblance in appearance to what is ordinarily so called. In botanical use, a flower consists normally of one or more stamens or pistils (or both), a corolla, and a calyx; but the two last are not universally present.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 340. Þe treou also, openeð ham & bringeð forð misliche flures.

1381.  Wyclif, Job xiv. 2. As a flour goth out, and is totreden.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, lxiv. 10. Leif nor flour fynd could I nane of rew.

1594.  Barnfield, Affect. Sheph., I. xxvi.

1672.  W. Hughes, Flower Garden, 31. Daffodils that have several Flowers on one Stalk.

1709.  Pope, Ess. Crit., 498.

1820.  Byron, Mar. Fal., III. ii.

1845.  Lindley, Sch. Bot., i. (1858), 13. A flower, if complete in all its parts … consists of a calyx, a corolla, stamens, and a pistil, with the addition in some cases of a disc.

1878.  Browning, La Saisiaz, 123.

  fig.  a. 1310.  in Wright’s, Lyric P., xxix. 89.

1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 30. Greet part of Cristen men þat seemede to be swete in devocioun schal no flour schewe of virtu.

c. 1491.  Chast. Goddes Chyld., 9. This is a foule blindnes: whiche letteth & dystroyeth y^e floures & the frutes of al goostly vertues.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. ii. 122.

1759.  Rutty, Spiritual Diary (ed. 2), 140. An extract of some sweet flowers from the scriptures.

1841.  Trench, Parables, xii. (1877), 241. For what this guest wanted was righteousness, both in its root of faith and its flower of charity.

  b.  In Bryology, extended to denote the growth comprising the reproductive organs in mosses.

  2.  transf. a. The down or feathery seeds of the dandelion and thistle. ? Obs.

1530.  Palsgr., 221/2. Floure of a tasyll that flyeth about all rounde, barbedieu.

  † b.  pl. The menstrual discharge; the menses; = CATAMENIA. Obs. [After F. fleurs: but this is regarded by French scholars as a corruption of flueurs: see FLUOR.]

c. 1400 Rel. Ant., I. 190.

1527.  Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, A iij. The same water an ounce therof dronke at nyght causeth women to have her flowres named menstruum.

1662.  R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 106. It helpeth the stopping of the Flowers.

1741.  in Chambers, Cycl.

1859.  R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, V. 666/2. The French term ‘fleurs,’ and the English, ‘flowers,’ are now fallen into disuse; but they were employed in earlier times as designations of menstruation.

  c.  Anc. Chem. (pl., earlier sing. also in form flour): The pulverulent form of any substance, esp. as the result of condensation after sublimation.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. lxxx. (1495), 579. Drieng and tempryng wyth vynegre it [leed] torneth in to whyte colour of floure of leed.

1641.  French, Distill., v. (1651), 164. You shall see this vessell in a short time to be white all over on the outside as with a hoar frost, which whitenesse is partly the flowers of the Nitre being the purest part thereof penetrating the vessell, and partly the nitrous aire condensed into Nitre by the coldnesse of the vessell, as also assimilated to the Nitre that penetrated the vessell.

1730.  Swift, Death & Daphne, 25.

1799.  Med. Jrnl., I. 162. The acid of benzoine, or the benzoic acid, is sufficiently known by the name of flowers of benzoine.

1822.  Imison, Elements of Science and Art, II. 114. These [white flakes] have been called flowers of Zinc.

1834.  Griffin, Chem. Recreat. (ed. 3), 117. Benzoic Acid, is commonly known by the name of flowers of benjamin, a substance obtained by sublimation from gum benzoin.

1854.  J. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Chem., 337. Powdered sulphur is known in commerce as flowers of sulphur.

  d.  Applied to various fungoid growths; a scum formed on wine, vinegar, etc., in fermentation. Flowers of tan: a fungus (Fuligo) growing on tan heaps.

1548.  Thomas, Ital. Gram., Fiocchi … flowers of wine.

1600.  W. Vaughan, Directions for Health (1633), 128. The Cholericke humour is hot and fiery, bitter, and like vnto the flowre of wine.

1668.  Phil. Trans., 21 Sept., 772. A somewhat Moist and Putrid Matter, like Rotten Wood; which Matter Spreads it self here and there in the Earth, just at the Osteocolla it self doth, and is call’d by those whom I have employed to look for it, the Flower of this Substance.

1675.  W. Charleton, Myst. Vintners, 151. Reserving the Froth or Flower of it, and putting the same into small casks, hooped with iron, lest otherwise the force of it might break them.

1882.  Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 263. The yellow plasmodia inside a tan-heap, which at length come to the surface, and then coalesce into the large bodies which are known as ‘flowers of tan.’

  3.  A blossom considered independently of the plant, and esp. in regard to its beauty or perfume.

c. 1275.  A Luue Ron, 151, in O. E. Misc., 97. Þu art swetture þane eny flur.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 214/491. A fair Medwe he saiȝ with swete floures.

a. 1300.  Floriz & Bl., 435.

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 86. Men ought to loue to lerne the best of the sciencis as the bees loue the swetest of the floures.

1508.  Dunbar, Goldyn Targe, 59.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., IV. ii. 169.

1656.  Cowley, Anacreontiques, Another Epicure, 19.

1732.  Pope, Ep. Cobham, 145.

  b.  fig. (esp. as applied to a person.)

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 340. Uertuz beoð feire ine Godes eien, & swote smellinde flures ine Godes neose.

a. 1310.  in Wright’s, Lyric P., xxxiii. 93.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, lxxxv. 10.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iii. 77. Nurse. Nay hee’s a flower, in faith a very flower.

1741.  Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 217. My wife told me a good deal of the beauties of your person; but I did not think we had such a flower in our country.

1847.  Tennyson, The Princess, V. 86.

  c.  pl. The bloom of certain plants used in Medicine (formerly also in Cookery).

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 29. Take Flourys of Vyolet, boyle hem.

1586.  W. Bailey, 2 Treat. Eye-sight (1633), 11. Dissoluing in an ounce of the water of Rosemarie flowers.

1600.  W. Vaughan, Directions for Health (1633), 76. Halfe a handfull of the flowers of Camomill.

1652.  Chamomel flowers [see CAMOMILE 2].

  4.  A flowering plant; a plant cultivated or esteemed for the sake of its blossoms.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, x. 41.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 869.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XI. 273.

1725.  Watts, Logic, I. vi. § 3 (1822), 99. If the blossom be of most importance, we call it a flower; such are daisies, tulips, and carnations, which are the mere blossoms of those plants.

1796.  C. Marshall, Garden., xiii. (1813), 289. Flowers, as to their cultivation, are classed into annuals, biennials, and perennials.

  b.  In the names of various plants, as † flower of Bristol, † flower (of) Constantinople, the nonsuch, Lychnis chalcedonica; flower of Jove (see quot.); flower of the night (see quot. 1665); flower of the sun = SUNFLOWER.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, II. viii. 157. Flos Constantinopolitanus, that is to say Floure Constantinople.

1597.  Gerard, Herball, II. cxix. § 5. 380. It is called … in English Flower of Constantinople: of some Flower of Bristowe, and Nonesuch. Ibid., ccxlvii. 612. Of the flower of the Sunne, or the Marigolde of Peru.

1665.  Ray, Flora, II. xvii. 195. The Mervail of Peru.… These flowers … are to be seen late in evenings, or early in mornings, and therefore have been called the flowers of the night.

1672.  W. Hughes, Flower Garden, 33. Flowers of the Sun, do commonly flower about August. Ibid. Flower of Bristol, Champion or Nonsuch.

1840.  Paxton, Bot. Dict., 134. Flower of Jove. See Lychnis flos Jovis.

  5.  The representation of a flower: a. in drawing, painting, and weaving.

c. 1230.  Hali Meid., 23. Þe flurs þat beoð idrahe þron [on a gerlaundesche].

a. 1300.  Body & Soul, 14, in Map’s Poems, 334.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 1412.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 890.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 1539. A vestoure to vise on of violet floures.

1830.  Tennyson, Recoll. Arab. Nts., xiv.

  b.  Arch.

1730–6.  Bailey (folio), Flowers [in Architecture], representations of some imaginary flowers, by way of crowning or finishing on the top of a dome.

1741.  Chambers, Cycl., Flower of the capital, is an ornament of scupture, in form of a rose, in the middle of the sweep of the Corinthian abacus.

  c.  Printing (See quot. 1871.)

1771.  Luckombe, Hist. & Art Print., 287. Flowers were the first Ornaments which were used at the Head of such pages that either began the mean Work, or else a separate Part of it.

1779.  Franklin, Lett., 9 June, Wks. 1889, VI. 427. Did they take all the letters, flowers, etc., etc., except the five cases of money types which you say the Congress have?

1838.  Timperley, Printers’ Man., 62. Flowers are used for borders.

1871.  Amer. Encycl. Printing, 172/1. Flowers.—Ornaments for embellishing chapter-headings, or forming tail-pieces to books.

1888.  in Jacobi, Printers’ Voc.

  d.  = FLEUR-DE-LIS 2 and 3. Flower of the winds: see quot. 1867.

c. 1314.  Guy Warw. (A.) (1887), 462. He … hit him on þe helme so briȝt, That al þe floures fel doun riȝt.

1352.  Minot, Poems, IX. i. The flowres that faire war Er fallen in Fraunce.

1559.  W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 162. If the flower of the nedle be righte Northe from it, your neadle is perfit.

1849.  Rock, Ch. of Fathers, I. viii. 393, note. The favourite Anglo-Saxon kind of ornament, called the ‘flower.’

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Flower of the Winds, the mariner’s compass on maps and charts.

  e.  † A flower-shaped branch or bowl of a candlestick. Also, a piece of iron shaped like a fleur-de-lis.

1521.  Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 128. I will that ther be maid for every flowre of the candlestike a tapur of wod.

1888.  Sheffield Gloss., Flower, the piece of iron which fastens a vice to a table or bench.

  f.  An artificial flower (as an ornament).

1881.  Illustr. Househ. Jrnl., Sept., 121/3. The most popular flowers just now for bonnet trimmings … are made of velvet.

  6.  An adornment or ornament; a precious possession, a ‘jewel.’

1542–5.  Brinkelow, Lament, 9. London, beyng one of the flowers of the worlde as touchinge worldlye riches, hath so manye, yea innumerable of poore people forced to go from dore to dore, and to syt openly in the stretes a beggynge.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 203. Pan. That’s Æneas, is not that a brave man, hee’s one of the flowers of Troy I can you.

1647.  May, Hist. Parl., II. iii. 40. The nomination of any persons to those places, he will reserve to himself, it being a principal and inseparable flower of his Crown, vested in him, and derived to him from his Ancestors, by the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom.

1677.  Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 63. The Dutch robbed of one of their greatest Flowers.

1783–94.  Blake, Songs Innoc., Holy Thursday, 5.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 219. It [the power of pardoning] might, therefore, well be expected that he [James] would now have struggled hard to retain a precious prerogative which had been enjoyed by his predecessors ever since the origin of the monarchy, and which even the Whigs allowed to be a flower properly belonging to the Crown.

  † b.  phr. To bear, fang, have the flower (of): to gain the victory, to have preeminence (among).

c. 1310.  Pol. Songs (Camden), 248.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 500. And þar þe floure in þe filde · I fangid þurȝe him selfe. Ibid., 2603. For he þat folows hase þe floure · & he flees neuer.

c. 1435.  Torrent of Portugal, 2594.

  † c.  Virginity. Obs.

a. 1300.  Fall & Passion, 52, in E. E. P. (1862), 14. Maid bere heuen king … þer for sso ne les noȝt hir flure.

1393.  Gower, Conf., II. 334.

  d.  An embellishment or ornament (of speech); a choice phrase. rare in sing.

1508.  Dunbar, Goldyn Targe, 117.

1533.  Udall (title), Flovvres for Latyne Spekynge, selected and gathered oute of Terence.

1665.  Boyle, Occas. Refl., v. i. (1845), 298. There being a Nicer sort of Readers which need Instruction (and to whom ’tis therefore a Charity to give it) who are so far from being likely to be prevailed on by Discourses not tricked up with Flowers of Rhetorick, that they would scarce be drawn so much as to cast their eyes on them.

1779.  Sheridan, Critic, I. i. Sneer. That your occasional tropes and flowers suit the general coarseness of your style, as tambour sprigs would a ground of linsey-woolsey; while your imitations of Shakspeare resemble the mimicry of Falstaff’s page, and are about as near the standard of the original.

1819.  T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem. (ed. 3), 41.

1873.  Dixon, Two Queens, III. XV. iii. 145. When the articles were signed, Max sent ambassadors to Bologna, where Ulrich von Hutten heard Italian orators smother them ‘in flowers of speech.’

  7.  The choicest individual or individuals among a number of persons or things; ‘the pick.’

  Flower of Chivalry, etc., may belong to this sense or to 9, according as the accompanying sb. is taken as abstr. or concr.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 257. Moder milde flur of alle.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 433.

1370[?].  Robert Cicyle, in Nugæ Poet. (1844), 50.

1508.  Dunbar, Poems, iv. 50. The noble Chaucer, of makaris flouir.

1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. IV. (an. 1), 17 b. There wer slain the flower of all Loughdean.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 1017/2. In the Churche of GOD, they were the flowre as it were of the Elect.

1581.  Mulcaster, Positions, xxxix. (1887), 197. There be also three kindes in gentilitie, the gentlemen, which be the creame of the common: the noblemen, which be the flowre of gentilitie, and the prince which is the primate and pearle of nobiltie.

1649.  Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., 443. It were enough that S. Ambrose, and S. Augustine (the flower of the Latine fathers) if no other, doe bitterly oppose it.

1764.  Mem. Geo. Psalmanazar, 74. Though we had in it several boys whose parents were in a much higher station, yet I was always singled out as the flower of the flock, and as the most ready to answer such questions as were suitable to our form.

1783.  R. Watson, Philip III., I. (1839), 49. They had consented to his selecting the flower of the English forces, for a reinforcement to the garrison.

1800–24.  Campbell, Brave Roland, vi.

1847.  Tennyson, The Princess, V. 277.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 348. The London clergy, then universally acknowledged to be the flower of their profession, held a meeting.

  8.  The best, choicest, most attractive or desirable part or product of anything, material or immaterial; the essence, quintessence; also ‘the gist’ (of a matter).

  The earliest appearance of this sense in English is in the specific application now differentiated as FLOUR sb., q.v.

1568.  Tilney, Disc. Mariage, A viij. What is then more necessarie than Matrimony which containeth the felicity of mans life, the Flower of Friendship.

1599.  H. Buttes, Dyets drie Dinner, N v. Creame…. Flos lactis…. Rightly so tearmed by the Latines, for it is the very flower of milke, as also butter is the flower of Creame.

1630.  R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 351. The flower of gaine and emolument to this State, is the Trafficke of the great Sea of Soria and Aegypt, which the Venetian had altogether in his hand.

1685.  Baxter, Paraph. N. T., Phil. iv. 4. That holy Joy in the Lord is that Flower of Religion which all Christians should desire, and chiefly labour to attain.

a. 1732.  Gay, Fables, Man, Cat, Dog & Fly, 123.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. III. v. The flower of the matter is, that they are but nine; that they sit in secret.

1842.  Tennyson, E. Morris, 69.

1871.  Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), II. ii. 27. Here we have the flower and outcome of Newton’s induction.

  9.  The brightest and fairest example or embodiment of any quality. Cf. PINK.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 213. Syre Wawein ys neueu, flour of corteysye.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Monk’s T., 107. In his tyme of strengthe he [Hercules] was the flour.

c. 1450.  Crt. of Love, 1.

1508.  Dunbar, Poems, vii. 81.

1581.  Sidney, Astr. & Stella, xcix.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. v. 44. He is not the flower of curtesie, but Ile warrant him as gentle a Lambe.

1611.  Coryat, Crudities, 353. Plautus, Terence, Cicero, Hortensius, Cæsar, and those other selected flowers of eloquence amongst the auncient Romans.

1859.  Tennyson, Elaine, 111.

  10.  The state or condition of being in bloom or blossom; in phrases in flower, † in (their) flowers.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 209.

1701.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3697/4. Ranunculos’s, and Tulips, in their Flowers.

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 414, 25 June, ¶ 5. An Orchard in Flower looks infinitely more delightful, than all the little Labyrinths of the most finished Parterre.

  † b.  transf. of birds. Obs.

1607.  Topsell, Serpents (1658), 654. Young birds, in how short time after they be out of the shell, they be feathered, they be able to go, to eat, yea quickly increased in strength, and grown to their full greatnesse, so that they are in their full flowre ere one be a ware.

1655.  T. Stanley, Hist. Philos., I. (1701), 29/2. Cocks, Pheasants, and Peacocks, who are much more beautiful in their natural flower.

  11.  Of persons: The period or state of ‘bloom,’ vigor, or prosperity. a. The prime (of life), the bloom (of youth); esp. in phrases, † in youth’s flowers, in the flower of one’s age.

1508.  Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 170. A ȝoung man ryght ȝaip, bot nought in ȝouth[is] flouris.

1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. IV. (an. 13), 32. He being enemie to the Englishe nation, was vanquished and taken prisoner and so remayned in Englande aboue xxiiij. yeres, vntill the flowre of his age was passed or sore blemished.

1577.  Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 41. Let not the floure of life passe by us.

1647–8.  Cotterell, Davila’s Hist. Fr. (1678), 4. This man, of a fierce courage, in the first flower of his age.

1733.  Pope, Hor. Sat., II. i. 102.

1827.  Scott, Jrnl., 4 Aug. He is a man in the flower of life, about thirty, handsome, bold, and enthusiastic; a great admirer of poetry, and all that.

1830.  Tennyson, Lady Clara, ii.

1863.  Mary Howitt, F. Bremer’s Greece, I. viii. 257. Both were tall, and perfect in figure; they were in the flower of youth and beauty—a regularly lovely couple.

  † b.  The state or condition of greatest eminence, fame, prosperity, etc. Chiefly phr. in one’s flower(s.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 316. Þe Emperour of Rome was þanne in his flouris.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt’s T., 2190.

a 1500[?].  Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.), 434.

1547–64.  Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 2. In which time Æsopus the orator was in his flower.

1550.  Coverdale, Bk. Death, I. xl. 158. Whyle a man is in his floures of health, he ought in such sort to learne the comfortable sayinges of the gospel.

1665.  J. Webb, Stone-Heng, 211. Jeffrey Monmouth, was in his Flower Anno 1156.

  † c.  Bloom or beauty. Obs.

1608.  Shaks., Per., III. ii. 96.

  12.  Simple attrib., as flower-bed, -bell, -border, -court, -garden, -garland, -plat, -plot, -root, -sheath, -show, -spike, -stand, -stick, -time, -tree.

1873.  Longf. Wayside Inn, Landlord’s T., Sir Christopher, 41.

1830.  Tennyson, Isabel, iii.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 36. A large Parterre of Embroidery mix’d with Knots of Grass-work, and environ’d with a *Flower-Border set off with Yews and Shrubs.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 234. She was stirring all day in her small housewifery, or her busy idleness, delving and digging in her flower-border, tossing and dandling every infant that came within her reach. Ibid. (1828), Ser. III. (1863), 25. Behind the house is an ample kitchen-garden, and before, a neat *flower-court.

1672.  W. Hughes (title), The *Flower-Garden.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 96. The court resembled a flower-garden.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 997.

1796.  Plain Sense, II. 49. The little *flower plat put forth its beauties, the orchard yield its fruits, and the virtues of integrity and industry lead content, health, and affluence in their train.

1854.  Hawthorne, Eng. Note-bks. (1870), II. 307. Suburban villas, Belgrave terraces, and other such prettinesses in the modern Gothic or Elizabethan style, with fancifully ornamented flower-plats before them.

1644.  J. Sergeant, in Digby, Nat. Bodies (1645), *2 a. Yours is a *Flower-plot pav’d by Truth’s rich Gold.

1838.  Thirlwall, Greece, III. xx. 140. Compared with this unbounded range, Attica itself ought to be no more valued than a little flower-plot, the superfluous ornament of a rich man’s estate.

1664.  Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 208. You may now take up all such Plants and *Flower-Roots as endure not well out of the Ground, and replant them again immediately.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 241. Flower-roots, sundry boxes of books, a piano-forte, and some simple and useful furniture.

1859.  Tennyson, Enid, 364.

1845.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., I. 316–7. I went with the girls and Mr. Liddle (the man who is so like a doll) to a *flower-show in the Botanical Gardens.

1845.  Florist’s Jrnl., 35. *Flower-spike from 2 to 3 feet long.

1838.  Lytton, Alice, 125. [She] busied herself with a *flower-stand in the recess.

1881.  F. Young, Every man his own Mechanic, § 708. *Flower-sticks may be square or round, according to the fancy of the maker.

1873.  Symonds, Grk. Poets, v. 127. At first this passion blossomed into the most exquisite lyrical poetry that the world has known: this was the *flower-time of the Æolians, their brief and brilliant spring.

c. 1710.  C. Fiennes, Diary (1888), 142. Then you Come to a descent of severall steps w^ch discovers anoth^r fine garden w^th fountaines playing through pipes besett on y^e branches w^th all sort of Greens and *flower trees.

  b.  objective, as flower-gatherer, -maker, -painter, -vendor; flower-making, -painting, vbl. sbs.; flower-bearing, -breeding, -infolding, -sucking adjs.

1870.  Hooker, Stud. Flora, 422. Gramineæ…. Normally *flower-bearing (but sometimes also empty) glumes.

1891.  Daily News, 4 Feb., 5/7. Behind the hearse there was a body of flower-bearing mutes.

1767.  G. S. Carey, Hills of Hybla, 1.

1611.  Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., I. xliv. 87/1. So the *Flower-gatherer of Westminster recordeth.

1821.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., II. i.

1809.  Han. More, Cœlebs (ed. 3), I. 145. We were in the the street where the poor *flower-maker lived.

1884.  Beck, Draper’s Dict., 130. Dyed feathers when used in *flower making are, by reason of the exposure to the sun’s rays, to which they are necessarily subjected, apt to fade.

1711.  Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. 349. The mere *Flower-Painter is, we see, oblig’d to study the Form of Festons.

1854.  Fairholt, Dict. Terms Art, *Flower-painting … may be said to have asserted its proper place as an Art sui generis in the seventeenth century, when painters began to devote themselves to composing picures of flowers alone, and grouping them with an attention to form and colour.

1621.  G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XV. (1626), 313.

1861.  Crt. Life at Naples, I. 207. The beggars and *flower-vendors sought shady nooks by the garden rails, some wrapt in slumber, some busily employed on one another in a grand hunt after live prey, and others fingering their martyred flowers which were afterwards to grace some delicate hand!

  c.  instrumental, as flower-bespangled, -besprinkled, -crowned, -decked, -embroidered, -enamelled, -inwoven, -sprinkled, -strewn, -teeming adjs.

1883.  Stevenson, Silverado Sq. (1886), 20. Overhead and on all sides a bower of green and tangled thicket, still fragrant and still *flower-bespangled by the early season, where thimble-berry played the part of our English hawthorn, and the buck-eyes were putting forth their twisted horns of blossom.

1851.  Longf., Gold. Leg., III. Sq. in front Cathedral.

1606.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. Magnif., 808.

1870.  Bryant, Iliad, I. VIII. 248.

1805.  Wordsw., Prelude, IV. (1888), 262/1. After I had left a *flower-decked room.

1747.  Ld. G. Lyttelton, Monody, v. 58.

1603.  Drayton, Bar. Wars, V. xviii.

1629.  Milton, Nativity, 187.

1859.  Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, 13. It was that moment in summer when the sound of the scythe being whetted makes us cast more lingering looks at the *flower-sprinkled tresses of the meadows.

1847.  Mary Howitt, Ballads, etc., 363.

1838.  Miss Pardoe, River & Desert, II. 43. Born beneath an Ionian sky, their tastes, their habits, and their manners all alike required a balmy atmosphere, a bright sea, and a *flower-teeming land.

  d.  parasynthetic and similative, as flower-faced, -like, -shaped, -soft, -wise adjs.; flower-like, -wise advs.

1881.  Rita, My Lady Coquette, I. iii. He does not look stern now, though, as he glances down at the slim *flower-faced maiden before him.

1604.  Rowlands, Looke to it, 47.

1846.  Ellis, Elgin Marb., I. 28–9. The top has a sloping roof, surmounted by a flower-like ornament, originally intended to hold the tripod of Lysicrates.

1836–7.  R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, II. 414/1. Simple tubes, ending in *flower-shaped capsules, i. e. each capsule consisting of a central vesicle, with other smaller ones places around it.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. ii. 215.

1865.  Swinburne, Atalanta, 212.

  13.  Special comb.: flower-animals, a book-name for the Anthozoa; flower-book, a book in which (a) drawings of flowers are made; (b) collected flowers are preserved; flower-bug, U.S., the popular name of various small hemipterous insects that frequent the blossoms of fowering plants, as the species of Anthocoris (Cent. Dict.); flower-cup, (a) the calyx; (b) the cup-shaped receptacle formed by a flower; flower-fence, the plant Poinciana pulcherrima; flower-girl, a girl who sells flowers; flower-head, an inflorescence consisting of a close cluster of sessile florets; flower-honey (see quot.); flower-knot, a small flower-bed arranged in a pattern; flower-leaf, a petal; flower-pecker, (a) a name for birds of the family Dicæidæ; (b) ‘an American honey-creeper or guitguit of the family Cœrebidæ’ (Cent. Dict.); flower-piece, (a) a picture with flowers for its subject; (b) an arrangement of flowers; flower-stalk, the peduncle supporting the flower or flower-head; flower-water, distilled water containing the essential oil of flowers; flower-work, a representation of flowers in weaving, carving, etc.

1840.  F. D. Bennett, Whaling Voy., I. 177. The elegant *flower-animal, Diazoma, is found on the barrier-reef, expanding its numerous tentacles of pink-and-white hue as a disk of great circumference placed at the summit of a round and fleshy stem.

1846.  Dana, Zooph., i. (1848), 7. The forms of life under consideration in the following pages, are appropriately styled flower-animals.

1753–4.  Shenstone, Poet. Wks. (1854), 137 (title), Written in a *flower book of my own colouring.

1857.  Thoreau, Maine W. (1894), 277. I used some thin and delicate sheets of this bark which he split and cut, in my flower-book; thinking it would be good to separate the dried specimens from the green.

1756.  P. Browne, Jamaica, 140. The *flower-cups [of the Knoxia] are cut into four deep segments at the margin, and remain tubular and swelling below.

1860.  Tyas, Wild Fl., 41. The flower cup consists of two obtuse lips.

1786.  Raes, Cycl., Barbadoes *flower-fence, poinciana … is planted in hedges, to divide the lands in Barbadoes, from whence it had the title of flower-fence.

1882.  J. Smith, Dict. Pop. Names Plants, 179. Flower-fence, a name in India for Cæsalpinia (Poinciana) pulcherrima, a prickly shrub of the Cæsalpinia section of the Bean family (Leguminosæ).

1789.  Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 236. One really expects the *flower girls with baskets, or garlands, and scarcely can persuade one’s self that all is real.

1889.  Tablet, 3 Aug., 167. There are two classes of flower-girl—the day-sellers and the night-sellers.

1845.  Lindley, Sch. Bot., i. (1858), 12. The capitulum, or *flower-head, when all the flowers are sessile upon a broad plate called a receptacle, as in the Daisy (Bellis perennis).

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. 184. There is three sortes of Hony, the best kinde is that which is called Authim, or *flowre Hony, made in the springtime.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 316. Floure-honey.

1770.  Armstrong, Misc., II. 142. In the Meadow, the sweet green, which never dazzles the Sight, is the predominant Colour; while the gaudy Flowers, red, white, yellow, blue, and purple, are carelessly interspersed. This is infinitely more pleading and beautiful than that insipid, childish, uncomfortable Bauble called a *Flower-knot.

1893.  S. E., Worc. Gloss., Flower-knot, a small flower bed.

1727.  Bailey, vol. II., Dipetalous Flower … is that which has two *Flower Leaves.

1860.  Oliver, Less. Bot. (1873), 4. Whatever is borne by the stem and its branches is a leaf of some kind, whether it be green, as are foliage-leaves, or coloured, as are flower-leaves.

1885.  H. O. Forbes, Nat. Wand. E. Archip., vi. 212. Little flocks of the small green *Flower-pecker (Zosterops) were the only birds seen or heard at the summit.

a. 1784.  Johnson, Wks. (1816), I. 334. On her playing upon the harpsichord, in a room hung with *flower-pieces of her own painting.

1789.  Pilkington, View Derbysh., I. 415. This plant raises itself every morning out of the water, and opens its flowers, so that by noon at least three inches of its *flowerstalk may be seen above the surface.

1886.  U. S. Consular Rep., No. lxviii. 581. Essences and *‘flower waters’ are produced by ordinary distillation, in which the flowers are boiled with water in large alembics; the vapor carries off the perfume and is condensed in adjoining copper tanks, like ordinary spirits.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 228. Robes … wrought thick with *floure-worke, resembling poppies.

1848.  Rickman, Archit., 211. The benches before these stalls present, in their ends and fronts, combinations of panelling and flower-work of great beauty.

1865.  E. Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, 193. It is a pity, when they are so proud to wear it, that the artistes who clothe them with such flower-work [lace] should be so poorly paid.