great laurel

noun

1. a tall shrub, Rhododendron maximum, of eastern North America, having rose-pink flowers.

Word History and Origins

Origin of great laurel¹

An Americanism dating back to 1775–85

Example Sentences

A New Hampshire State Parks report Thursday said most bushes of Rhododendron maximum, also known as great laurel or rosebay, have opened their buds in a 16-acre grove in Fitzwilliam that’s part of Rhododendron State Park.

From Washington Times

The child lived in the 100 block of Great Laurel Square SE in Leesburg.

From Washington Post

Great laurel hedges, alternating with curiously high-clipped yews, and some magnificent elms added to the impression of space, as well as to that sort of pleasant "mystery" without which no garden is thoroughly fascinating.

From Project Gutenberg

The great laurel magnolia is oftenest seen in cultivation as a small tree of pyramidal or conical habit, with stiff, ascending branches, bearing a lustrous mass of leathery oval leaves, five to eight inches long, lined with dull green, or with rusty down, persistent until the second spring.

From Project Gutenberg

Among the Alleghany Mountains, from Virginia southward, the great laurel rises to a height of forty feet, and interlaces its boughs with those of Fraser's magnolia and the mountain hemlock in the dense forest cover.

From Project Gutenberg