Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Iris

I′ris, n.; pl. E. Irises (#), L. Irides (#). [L. iris, iridis, the goddess, Gr. ἶρις, ἴριδος, the rainbow, iris of the eye, the plant Iris. Cf. Orris.] 1. (Class. Myth.) The goddess of the rainbow, and swift-footed messenger of the gods. Shak.

2. The rainbow. Sir T. Browne.

3. An appearance resembling the rainbow; a prismatic play of colors. Tennyson.

4. (Anat.) The contractile membrane perforated by the pupil, and forming the colored portion of the eye. See Eye.

5. (Bot.) A genus of plants having showy flowers and bulbous or tuberous roots, of which the flower-de-luce (fleur-de-lis), orris, and other species of flag are examples. See Illust. of Flower-de-luce.

6. (Her.) See Fleur-de-lis, 2.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.