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Johnny-jump-up

[ jon-ee-juhmp-uhp ]

noun

  1. any of certain violets, especially Viola pedunculata, having variously colored flowers.
  2. a small form of the pansy, V. tricolor.


Johnny-jump-up

noun

  1. any of several violaceous plants, esp the wild pansy
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of Johnny-jump-up1

1835–45, Americanism; so called from its rapid rate of growth; Johnny
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Word History and Origins

Origin of Johnny-jump-up1

C19: so called from its quick growth
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Example Sentences

In the U. S., only brash, Johnny-jump-up William Saroyan hastens more incontinently to answer his critics than Playwright Clifford Odets.

One Johnny-jump-up, but an apron-full Of starry crowfoot, making mossy dells Dim with heaven's morning blue; dew-dripping plumes Of waxen "dog-mouths"; red the tippling cups Of gypsy-lilies all along the creek, Where dull the freckled silence sleeps, and dark The water runs when, at high noon, the cows Wade knee-deep and the heat hums drowsy with The drone of dizzy flies;—one Samson-flower Blue-streaked and crystal as a summer's cloud; White violets, milk-weed, scarlet Indian-pinks, All fragile-scented and familiar as Pink baby faces and blue infant eyes.

Plant a little boy and what?—Johnny-jump-up.

I won’t see Johnny-jump-up to-day.”

“I’m going to the woods,” he said, “to see Johnny-jump-up.”

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