crocus — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   Other foreign terms have become so thoroughly Anglicised as to adopt English plurals, and it is sometimes difficult to decide whether the English or the original foreign form is the more correct. None but a pedant would speak of ‘the chori of an opera,’ ‘the croci in a garden,’ or ‘the dogmata of the church;’ […]

   Nothing is more short-lived than the erection; like the crocus of spring, it is there for a moment, and then it is gone; one moment the penis is small, soft, and insignificant, and then in the next it is hard, rigid, and three and four times its previous size.

2. Any of various similar flowering plants, such as autumn crocus and prairie crocus.

3. A deep yellow powder, the oxide of some metal (especially iron), calcined to a red or deep yellow colour.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

Noun

1. A fraudulent doctor; a quack.

   Usage

   • Obsolete
   • Slang

   Examples

   The characteristics of the crocus or vagabond quack doctor appear to find a sardonically appropriate origin in the Erse cruach-bhas, a bloody death.

   The crocus of this novel is gusty Professor Louis Delfontaine, quack doctor, showman, charlatan and man of parts.

Noun

1. Burlap.

   Usage

   • Jamaica
   • Trinidad-and-Tobago
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   a crocus bag

Noun

1. any of numerous low-growing plants of the genus Crocus having slender grasslike leaves and white or yellow or purple flowers; native chiefly to the Mediterranean region but widely cultivated

   Broader terms

   iridaceous plant