Turn·sole n. [Written also turnsol.]
1. Bot. (a) A plant of the genus Heliotropium; heliotrope; -- so named because its flowers are supposed to turn toward the sun. (b) The sunflower. (c) A kind of spurge (Euphorbia Helioscopia). (d) The euphorbiaceous plant Chrozophora tinctoria.
2. Chem. (a) Litmus. [Obs.] (b) A purple dye obtained from the plant turnsole. See def. 1 (d).
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Wart·wort n. Bot. A name given to several plants because they were thought to be a cure for warts, as a kind of spurge (Euphorbia Helioscopia), and the nipplewort (Lampsana communis).
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Wart n.
1. Med. A small, usually hard, tumor on the skin formed by enlargement of its vascular papillae, and thickening of the epidermis which covers them.
2. An excrescence or protuberance more or less resembling a true wart; specifically Bot., a glandular excrescence or hardened protuberance on plants.
Fig wart, Moist wart Med., a soft, bright red, pointed or tufted tumor found about the genitals, often massed into groups of large size. It is a variety of condyloma. Called also pointed wart, venereal wart. --L. A. Duhring.
Wart cress Bot., the swine's cress. See under Swine.
Wart snake Zool., any one of several species of East Indian colubrine snakes of the genus Acrochordus, having the body covered with wartlike tubercles or spinose scales, and lacking cephalic plates and ventral scutes.
Wart spurge Bot., a kind of wartwort (Euphorbia Helioscopia).
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Euphorbia helioscopia
n : not unattractive European weed whose flowers turn toward the
sun [syn: sun spurge, wartweed, wartwort, devil's
milk]