lychnis

American  

[lik-nis] / ˈlɪk nɪs /

noun

1. any showy-flowered plant belonging to the genus Lychnis, of the pink family.

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lychnis British  

/ ˈlɪknɪs /

noun

1. any caryophyllaceous plant of the genus Lychnis, having red, pink, or white five-petalled flowers See also ragged robin

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Etymology

Origin of lychnis

1595–1605; < Latin < Greek lychnís red flower, akin to lýchnos lamp

Example Sentences

Geranium, lychnis, rose array'd    The windows, all wide open thrown; And some one in the Study play'd    The Wedding-March of Mendelssohn.

From Angel in the House by Patmore, Coventry Kersey Dighton

Pliny and St. Isidore speak of a certain stone lychnis, of a scarlet or flame colour, which, when warmed by the sun or between the fingers, attracts straws or leaves of papyrus.

From On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments by Gilbert, William

In the lychnis of the high Alps, the red and white have a kind of sugary bloom, as rich as it is delicate.

From Lectures on Art Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870 by Ruskin, John

The grass is long and yet sparse; here and there a few flowers cling, hardy geraniums, lychnis, and the like, but they seem strangely out of place.

From Melody : the Story of a Child by Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe

Pink lychnis flowers behind the withy stoles, and little black moorhens swim away, as you gather it, after their mother, who has dived under the water-grass, and broken the smooth surface of the duckweed.

From The Life of the Fields by Jefferies, Richard