dusty miller

noun

1. Botany.
   1. any of several composite plants, as Centaurea cineraria, Senecio cineraria, or the beach wormwood, having pinnate leaves covered with whitish pubescence.
   2. rose campion.
2. Angling. a type of artificial fly used chiefly for trout and salmon.

dusty miller

noun

1. Also calledsnow-in-summer a caryophyllaceous plant, Cerastium tomentosum, of SE Europe and Asia, having white flowers and downy stems and leaves: cultivated as a rock plant
2. a plant, Artemisia stelleriana, of NE Asia and E North America, having small yellow flower heads and downy stems and leaves: family Asteraceae (composites)
3. any of various other downy plants, such as the rose campion

Word History and Origins

Origin of dusty miller¹

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

Lucy and I had both a fight for it with the dusty miller; I know it was a hard fight on my part, and I am quite heroic.

From Project Gutenberg

Small insects of night gathered, and at last a little dusty miller, but nothing came of any size.

From Project Gutenberg

Among foliage plants such things as coleus, dusty miller, begonia, and some geraniums are adaptable.

From Project Gutenberg

He was lean and wiry and the dust of his mill seemed to have been so ground into his very skin that he was a regular dusty miller.

From Project Gutenberg

I'd like to whip him, till all the dust flew out of his Dusty Miller clothes—so I would!

From Project Gutenberg