Word.ws English Dictionary

elder-blow

elder-blow noun: the edible flower clusters (umbels) of the elder tree (Sambucus nigra).

elder-blow: the edible flower clusters (umbels) of the elder tree (Sambucus nigra)
Image: J.M.Garg, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

elder-blow (countable and uncountable, plural elder-blows)

  1. (US) The edible flower clusters (umbels) of the elder tree (Sambucus nigra).
    • A poultice of elder-blow tea and biscuit is good as a preventive to mortification.1838, Lydia Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife, New York: Samuel S. & William Wood, 22nd edition, enlarged, p. 27
    • I wouldn’t tech it sooner a cow’d eat elder blows.1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret, Boston: Jordan and Wiley, Part 2, Chapter 5, p. 274
    Synonyms:
    elder-bloom, elder-blossom, elderflower

Examples of elder-blow in a sentence

  • What but a sensibility so keen that the scent of an elder-blow, or the timber-yard and corporation-works of a nest of pismires is event enough for him,—all emblems and personal appeals to him.1876, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Poetry and Imagination”, in Letters and Social Aims, Boston: James R. Osgood, page 33:
  • […] the elder was all in bloom now; and Anna wanted to make elder-blow wine.1918, Willa Cather, chapter 14, in My Antonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 265:

Synonyms of elder-blow

Forms of elder-blow

pluralelder-blows

Questions about elder-blow

What does elder-blow mean?
Elder-blow means the edible flower clusters (umbels) of the elder tree (Sambucus nigra).
How do you use elder-blow in a sentence?
What but a sensibility so keen that the scent of an elder-blow, or the timber-yard and corporation-works of a nest of pismires is event enough for him,—all emblems and personal appeals to him.
What part of speech is elder-blow?
Elder-blow is a noun.
What is the plural of elder-blow?
The plural of elder-blow is elder-blows.

Words near elder-blow in the dictionary

  1. elder orphan
  2. elder orphans
  3. elder sisters
  4. elder statesman
  5. elder statesmen
  6. elder-blow
  7. elder-blows
  8. elder-flower
  9. elder-gun
  10. elder-guns
  11. elderate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: elder-blow (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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