flower

English Online Dictionary. What means flower‎? What does flower mean?

English

Alternative forms

• flowre (obsolete)
• flow'r (archaic or poetic)

Etymology 1

From Middle English flour, from Anglo-Norman flur, from Latin flōrem, accusative of flōs, from Proto-Italic *flōs, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to thrive, bloom”). Doublet of fleur, flor, flour, bloom, and blossom.

Partly displaced native Old English blostma (which is cognate), whence Modern English blossom.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈflaʊ.ə/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈflaʊ.ɚ/
• Rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)
• (India) IPA^(key): /flaː(r)/, /flɐ.ʋə(r)/, /flɐ.wə(r)/
• Homophone: flour (for people who pronounce flower as one syllable, or flour as two)

Noun

flower (countable and uncountable, plural flowers)

1. A colorful, conspicuous structure associated with angiosperms, frequently scented and attracting various insects, and which may or may not be used for sexual reproduction.
3. (botany) A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens and/or a pistil.
4. A plant that bears flowers, especially a plant that is small and lacks wood.

5. The stem of a flowering plant with the blossom or blossoms attached, used for decoration, as a gift, etc.

6. (uncountable, usually with in) Of plants, a state of bearing blooms.

7. (euphemistic, hypocoristic) The vulva, especially the labia majora.
8. The best examples or representatives of a group.
9. The best state of things; the prime.
10. (obsolete) Flour.
12. (in the plural, chemistry, obsolete) A substance in the form of a powder, especially when condensed from sublimation.
13. A figure of speech; an ornament of style.
14. (printing) Ornamental type used chiefly for borders around pages, cards, etc.
15. (in the plural, obsolete) Menstrual discharges.
16. A delicate, fragile, or oversensitive person.
17. (figurative, chiefly in the plural) Credit, recognition.
18. (uncountable, slang) Cannabis.

Usage notes

• In its most common sense as "a colorful conspicuous structure", the word flower includes many structures which are not anatomically flowers in the botanical sense. Sunflowers and daisies, for example, are structurally clusters of many small flowers that together appear to be a single flower (a capitulum, a form of pseudanthium), but these are considered to be flowers in the general sense. Likewise, the botanical definition of flower includes many structures that would not be considered a flower by the average person, such as the catkins of a willow tree or the downy flowers found atop a cattail stalk.

Synonyms

• (inflorescence that resembles a flower): head, pseudanthium
• (best examples): cream
• (best state of things): prime

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

flower (third-person singular simple present flowers, present participle flowering, simple past and past participle flowered)

1. (intransitive) To put forth blooms.

2. (transitive) To decorate with pictures of flowers.
3. (intransitive) To reach a state of full development or achievement.
   • 1940 Mahadev Desai, translator, Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography, Part III (IX) The Story of My Experiments with Truth/Part III/Simple Life, original published 1927-1929

     It only needed watering to take root, to flower and to fructify, and the watering came in due course.
4. (archaic, intransitive) To froth; to ferment gently, as new beer.
5. (intransitive) To come off as flowers by sublimation.

Synonyms

• (to put forth blooms): bloom, blossom
• (reach a state of achievement): flourish

Derived terms

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

• Category:Flowers

Etymology 2

flow +‎ -er

Alternative forms

• flow-er

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfləʊə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfloʊɚ/

Noun

flower (plural flowers)

1. (rare, especially crosswording) Something that flows, such as a river.
   • 1886–1890, J. D. Rees, Narratives of Tours in India, page 340:

     Leaving the weavers’ village behind you, and crossing the sandy bed of the Vengavati or ‘Swift-flower,’ which, however, contained not a drop of water, you reach the ancient Jain temple.

Usage notes

• The term is used with this meaning almost exclusively in cryptic crossword clues, where it generally stands in for the name of a specific river.

Anagrams

• Fowler, Wolfer, flowre, fowler, reflow, wolfer

Cebuano

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English flower.

Noun

flower

1. someone who is allowed to participate in games but cannot become it; usually a younger sibling of a player who may or may not fully grasp the mechanics of the game
2. (mahjong) flower or season tile
3. (mahjong) act of declaring and revealing a flower or season tile and in order drawing a replacement tile

Middle English

Noun

flower

1. Alternative form of flour