WALLFLOWER • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Wallflower

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noun

Wallflower n.

(Bot.) A perennial, cruciferous plant (Cheiranthus Cheiri), with sweet-scented flowers varying in color from yellow to orange and deep red. In Europe it very common on old walls. Note: The name is sometimes extended to other species of Cheiranthus and of the related genus Erysimum, especially the American Western wallflower (Erysimum asperum), a biennial herb with orange-yellow flowers.

A lady at a ball, who, either from choice, or because not asked to dance, remains a spectator. (Colloq.)

(Bot.) In Australia, the desert poison bush (Gastrolobium grandiflorum); called also native wallflower.

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Etymology of 'Wallflower'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wallflower" Quotes from Famous Books

... Erica Ranges, after one of my sisters. All along the banks of the creek splendid green acacia and grass was growing, and a most inviting-looking plant standing some six feet high, with greenish-grey stems and leaves, and a flower not unlike wallflower. Such a place at once suggested camping, and we were proceeding to unload when Godfrey remarked that this pretty plant was very like a most deadly Queensland poison plant; he was not sure; I had never seen it before, nor had Breaden. The risk, however, was too great; ...

— Spinifex and Sand - Five Years' Pioneering and Exploration in Western Australia • David W Carnegie

... wallflower, growing up so high, We are all maidens, and we must all die, Excepting [Nellie Newton], the youngest of us all, She can dance and she can sing, and she can knock ...

— Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories - A Book for Bairns and Big Folk • Robert Ford

... song with which the children were used to accompany the fanfare of the scarlet-coated musicians who preceded the Lords Justiciary on their circuit twice a year; but the words came distinctly to him in by the open window where the wallflower nodded, and he joined silently in his mind the dolorous chorus and felt himself the ...

— Gilian The Dreamer - His Fancy, His Love and Adventure • Neil Munro

Words linked to "Wallflower" : Erysimum cheiri, Erysimum, Cheiranthus allionii, shy person, flower, Siberian wall flower