mullein

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mul·lein

(mŭl′ən)

Any of various Eurasian plants of the genus Verbascum of the figwort family, especially V. thapsus, naturalized in North America, having a tall spike of yellow flowers and leaves covered with dense woolly down.

[Middle English moleine, from Anglo-Norman, probably from mol, soft, from Latin mollis; see moil.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mullein

(ˈmʌlɪn) or

mullen

(Plants) any of various European herbaceous plants of the scrophulariaceous genus Verbascum, such as V. thapsus (common mullein or Aaron's rod), typically having tall spikes of yellow flowers and broad hairy leaves. See also Aaron's rod

[C15: from Old French moleine, probably from Old French mol soft, from Latin mollis]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mul•lein

or mul•len

(ˈmʌl ən)

n.

any of various plants belonging to the genus Verbascum, of the figwort family, native to the Old World.

[1325–75; Middle English moleine < Anglo-French, perhaps derivative of mol soft < Latin mollis]

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Noun

mullein - any of various plants of the genus Verbascum having large usually woolly leaves and terminal spikes of yellow or white or purplish flowers

flannel leaf, velvet plant

herb, herbaceous plant - a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests

genus Verbascum, Verbascum - genus of coarse herbs and subshrubs mostly with woolly leaves

moth mullein, Verbascum blattaria - European mullein with smooth leaves and large yellow or purplish flowers; naturalized as a weed in North America

Verbascum lychnitis, white mullein - densely hairy Eurasian herb with racemose white flowers; naturalized in North America

purple mullein, Verbascum phoeniceum - Eurasian mullein with showy purple or pink flowers

Aaron's rod, common mullein, flannel mullein, great mullein, Verbascum thapsus, woolly mullein, torch - tall-stalked very woolly mullein with densely packed yellow flowers; ancient Greeks and Romans dipped the stalks in tallow for funeral torches

Translations

mullein

n (bot) gordolobo

References in classic literature ?

Down the wilder shrubbery walks foxgloves and mulleins will (I hope) shine majestic; and one cool corner, backed by a group of firs, is graced by Madonna lilies, white foxgloves, and columbines.

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She caught endless colds sitting on damp grass to book `delicious bit', composed of a stone, a stump, one mushroom, and a broken mullein stalk, or `a heavenly mass of clouds', that looked like a choice display of featherbeds when done.

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"Well may you laugh, ye children of the devil!" said the scout, seating himself on a projection of the rock, and suffering his gun to fall neglected at his feet, "for the three quickest and truest rifles in these woods are no better than so many stalks of mullein, or the last year's horns of a buck!"

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The neighbour ran, and in came a brisk little old lady in cap and specs, with a bundle of herbs under her arm, which she at once applied in all sorts of funny ways, explaining their virtues as she clapped a plantain poultice here, put a pounded catnip plaster there, or tied a couple of mullein leaves round the sufferer's throat.

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I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee.

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come and behold the prospect of skirting Ishmael; come and look nature boldly in the face, and not go sneaking any longer, among the prairie grass and mullein tops, like a gobbler nibbling for grasshoppers."