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.

---

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

---

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

See Sanguinaria. µ In England the name is given to the tormentil, once used as a remedy for dysentery.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah

Here is herb Robert in flower—its leaves are scarlet; a leaf of St. John's-wort, too, has become scarlet; the bramble leaves are many shades of crimson; one plant of tormentil has turned yellow.

From Field and Hedgerow Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies by Jefferies, Richard