Showing results for star thistle. Search instead for spear+thistle.

star thistle

American

Or star-thistle

noun

any of several naturalized Eurasian plants of the genus Centaurea, especially C. calcitrapa, having purplish, spiny flower heads.

star thistle British

noun

any of several plants of the genus Centaurea , esp C. calcitrapa , of Eurasia, which has spiny purplish flower heads: family Asteraceae (composites) See also centaury

"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

Etymology

Origin of star thistle

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

They are the yellow-flowered centaury, the mountain centaury, the star thistle and the rough centaury: the first predominates.

From The Life of the fly; with which are interspersed some chapters of autobiography by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023