The leaf of the strawberry plant. Also, † the plant itself (obs.). Also attrib.
[c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 350. Streawberʓean leaf.]
c. 1265. Voc. Plants, in Wr.-Wülcker, 558/28. Fraga, fraser, streberilef.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes, 38. Fragraria is called in english a strawbery leafe, whose fruite is called in englishe a strawbery.
1893. Morning Post, 8 March, 8/2. Another rosaceous pest is the little strawberry-leaf beetle.
b. In allusion to the row of conventional figures of the leaf on the coronet of a duke, marquis or earl.
1827. Moore, New Creation of Peers, 32. If coronets glistened with pills ’stead of pearls, And the strawberry-leaves were by rhubarb supplanted!
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, V. iii. Who, if he carried the county and the manufacturing borough also, merited the strawberry-leaf.
1875. J. Grant, One of Six Hundred, iv. 32. It was among the strawberry leaves she chiefly expected to find a husband for her daughter—a marquis at least.
Hence Strawberry-leaved a.
1894. K. Grahame, Pagan Papers, 107. Duchesses … rapt … from their strawberry-leaved surroundings.
1883. Ld. R. Gower, Remin., I. v. 71. The ducal strawberry-leaved land.
