corn poppy

American  

noun

1. a common Old World poppy, Papaver rhoeas, having bright-red flowers.

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corn poppy British  

noun

1. Also called: coquelicot.   Flanders poppy.   field poppy.  a poppy, Papaver rhoeas, that has bright red flowers and grows in cornfields. Since World War I it has been the symbol of fallen soldiers

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Etymology

Origin of corn poppy

First recorded in 1875–80; so called from its growing in grainfields

Example Sentences

After one of his comrades was killed, the Canadian field surgeon John McCrae penned the enduring poem linking the corn poppy to the slaughter of industrialized warfare.

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2018

The paradox of the corn poppy is that it is a wildflower — farmers view it as a weed — that is individually delicate and fleeting but capable of appearance in vast colonies.

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2018

In a 2007 paper, Swedish researcher Laila M. Karlsson concluded that corn poppy seeds can behave as a winter annual in warmer climates and a summer annual in cold ones.

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2018

The corn poppy is a pesky weed, a sweet, delicate garden flower and, for the past century, the emblem of the human cost of war.

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2018

There is a change in every hour's recall,     And the last cowslip in the fields we see     On the same day with the first corn poppy.

From A Daughter of Fife by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston