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chickweed

noun

Etymology

From Middle English chykwed, chykewode, chike wed, chikewed, chekwede, a variant of chykynwede, chekyn-wede, cheken-wede (literally “chicken-weed”), equivalent to chick + weed. Etymonline claims the name was apparently applied to many plants fit for chicken feed, which were called in Old English cicene mete (“chicken food”).

  1. inherited from chykwed

Definitions

  1. Any of several small-leaved herbs of the genera Cerastium and Stellaria.

    • I look at the little sprigs of chickweed trembling among the bean shoots and I am strangely moved. Such steadfastness! Such yearning! They want to live too. That is all they ask: to have their little moment in the world.

  2. Other plants of similar appearance and habit, including those of species

    Other plants of similar appearance and habit, including those of species:

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for chickweed. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA