tormentil

American  

[tawr-men-til] / ˈtɔr mɛn tɪl /

noun

1. a low European plant, Potentilla erecta, of the rose family, having small, bright-yellow flowers, and a strongly astringent root used in medicine and in tanning and dyeing.

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tormentil British  

/ ˈtɔːməntɪl /

noun

1. Also called: bloodroot.  a rosaceous downy perennial plant, Potentilla erecta, of Europe and W Asia, having serrated leaves, four-petalled yellow flowers, and an astringent root used in medicine, tanning, and dyeing

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Etymology

Origin of tormentil

1350–1400; Middle English tormentille < Medieval Latin tormentilla, equivalent to Latin torment ( um ) torment + -illa diminutive suffix

Example Sentences

Sometimes they scuttled along open turf, colored like a tapestry meadow with self-heal, centaury and tormentil.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

Here and there a yellow tormentil showed in the grass, a late harebell or a few shreds of purple bloom on a brown, crisping tuft of self-heal.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

They made tea sometimes of the tormentil, whose little yellow flowers appear along the furrows.

From Round About a Great Estate by Jefferies, Richard

Rhubarb, rheum palmatum, oak-galls, gall� quercin�, tormentil, tormentilla erecta, cinquefoil potentilla, red-roses, uva ursi, simarouba.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

With logwood, tormentil, cort, granat, etc., there are some spots of this kind, but with none so much as with galls.

From The Annals of Willenhall by Hackwood, Frederick William