Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Wormwood

Worm′wood (wûrm′wo͝od), n. [AS. wermōd, akin to OHG. wermuota, wormuota, G. wermuth, wermut; of uncertain origin.]

1. (Bot.) A composite plant (Artemisia Absinthium), having a bitter and slightly aromatic taste, formerly used as a tonic and a vermifuge, and to protect woolen garments from moths. It gives the peculiar flavor to the cordial called absinthe. The volatile oil is a narcotic poison. The term is often extended to other species of the same genus.

2. Anything very bitter or grievous; bitterness.

Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood. Deut. xxix. 18.

Roman wormwood (Bot.), an American weed (Ambrosia artemisiæfolia); hogweed. — Tree wormwood (Bot.), a species of Artemisia (probably Artemisia variabilis) with woody stems. — Wormwood hare (Zoöl.), a variety of the common hare (Lepus timidus); — so named from its color.

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 “?”.