flower

Noun (1)

flower (countable and uncountable, plural flowers)

1. A colorful, conspicuous structure associated with angiosperms, frequently scented and attracting various insects, and which may or may not be used for sexual reproduction.
   • O Laurinella! little doſt thou wot / How fraile a flower thou doſt ſo highly prize: / Beauty's the flower, but love the flower-pot / That muſt preſerve it, els it quickly dyes.1653, William Basse, “Clio, or The First Muse; in 9 Eglogues in Honor of 9 Vertues. As It was in His Dayes Intended. [Munday. Laurinella. Eglogue. Of True and Chast Love.]”, in J[ohn] P[ayne]...
   • The flowers glowed red and golden: snapdragons and sunflowers, and nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the round windows.1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “A Long-Expected Party”, in The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, London: George Allen & Unwin, →OCLC
2. A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens and/or a pistil.
   • You know, Darwin studied their fertilisation, and showed that the whole structure of an ordinary orchid flower was contrived in order that moths might carry the pollen from plant to plant.1894, H. G. Wells, The Flowering of the Strange Orchid
3. A plant that bears flowers, especially a plant that is small and lacks wood.
   • We transplanted the flowers to a larger pot.
4. The stem of a flowering plant with the blossom or blossoms attached, used for decoration, as a gift, etc.
   • He always keeps a vase full of flowers in his office.
5. (uncountable, usually) Of plants, a state of bearing blooms.
   • The dogwoods are in flower this week.
6. (euphemistic, familiar) The vulva, especially the labia majora.
   • [F]or ſtill, that my virgin-flower was yet uncrop'd never once enter'd into his head, and he would have thought it idling with time and words to have queſtion'd me upon it.1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC...
   • So was it asserted, that whenever a maiden was destined to die unmarried, as surely would the plant wither away and perish, and if a dughter of the Renseccos lost her honour or had given away her flower to an unworthy lover, then would the flower be blighted overnight.1893, Emily Gerard, The Voice of a Flower, page 44
7. The best examples or representatives of a group.
   • At Floddon hyllys, / Our bowys, our byllys / Slew all the floure / Of theyr honoure.1513, John Skelton, Agaynst the Scottes; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 116, lines 25–28
   • The choice and flower of all things profitable in other Bookes, the Pſalmes doe both more briefly contayne, and more mouingly alſo expreſſe, by reason of that Poeticall forme wherewith they are written.1597 [1593–1662], Richard Hooker, “The fifth Booke”, in Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, page 258

   Synonyms:

   cream

8. The best state of things; the prime.
   • She was in the flower of her life.
   • A simple maiden in her flower / Is worth a hundred coats-of-arms.1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Lady Clara Vere de Vere”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 156

   Synonyms:

   prime

9. (obsolete) Flour.
   • The Flovvers of Grains mix'd vvith VVater vvill make a ſort of Glue.1731, John Arbuthnot, “Of the Different Intentions to be Pursued in the Choice of Aliment in Different Constitutions”, in An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According...
10. (in plural, obsolete) A substance in the form of a powder, especially when condensed from sublimation.
    • the flowers of sulphur
    • Exposed to a moderate fire in subliming pots, [brimstone] rises all into dry, and almost tasteless, flowers; whereas being exposed to a naked fire, it affords store of a saline and fretting liquor.1661, Robert Boyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, […], London: […] J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, […], →OCLC
11. (poetic) A figure of speech; an ornament of style.
    • flowers of rhetoric
12. Ornamental type used chiefly for borders around pages, cards, etc.
    • I pointed out to the late Mr. Catherwood, of the firm of Caslon and Catherwood, the inconvenience of both these modes of cutting flowers,1841, William Savage, A Dictionary of the Art of Printing

Verb

flower (third-person singular simple present flowers, present participle flowering, simple past and past participle flowered)

1. (intransitive) To put forth blooms.
   • This plant flowers in June.

   Synonyms:

   bloom, blossom

2. (transitive) To decorate with pictures of flowers.
3. (intransitive) To reach a state of full development or achievement.
   • when flowr'd my youthful spring1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “December. Ægloga Duodecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC
   • It only needed watering to take root, to flower and to fructify, and the watering came in due course.1940 Mahadev Desai, translator, Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography, Part III (IX) The Story of My Experiments with Truth/Part III/Simple Life, original published 1927-1929

   Synonyms:

   flourish

4. (archaic, intransitive) To froth; to ferment gently, as new beer.
   • That beer did flower a little.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
5. (intransitive) To come off as flowers by sublimation.
   • observations which have flowered off[1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London]: […] [Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC

Noun (2)

UK/ˈfləʊə/US/ˈfloʊɚ/

flower (plural flowers)

1. (rare, especially crosswording) Something that flows, such as a river.
   • Leaving the weavers’ village behind you, and crossing the sandy bed of the Vengavati or ‘Swift-flower,’ which, however, contained not a drop of water, you reach the ancient Jain temple.1886–1890, J. D. Rees, Narratives of Tours in India, page 340
   • Rhŏdănus, i, m. The Rhodanus (now Rhone); a river of Gaul [prob. a northern word, meaning “Swift-flower or Swift-passer”].1888, John T. White, The Seventh Book of Cæsar’s Gallic War with a Vocabulary, page 224

Proper noun capitalized: Flower

Flower (countable and uncountable, plural Flowers)

1. A surname.
2. An unincorporated community in Braxton County, West Virginia, United States.