tormentil
tormentil noun: a low-growing herb (Potentilla erecta, syn. Potentilla tormentilla).
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Noun
tormentil (countable and uncountable, plural tormentils)
- A low-growing herb (Potentilla erecta, syn. Potentilla tormentilla).
- […] the hearbe Tormentill which hath seauen leaues resisteth all poysons.1615, Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, London: William Jaggard, “A Dilucidation or Exposition of the Controuersies concerning the Historie of the Infant,” Question 31, p. 340
- Instead of tea, they drink an infusion of the roots of the tormentil (Tormentilla erecta), which, when boiled, dyes the water reddish, gives it a very astringent taste, and is drank without milk.1788, S. Pallas, “Travels through Siberia and Tartary”, in John Trusler, editor, The Habitable World Described, volume 3, London, Part 2, p. 233
- Synonyms:
- shepherd's knot
Examples of tormentil in a sentence
- The bracken, waist-high at first, was like small hoops at the top of the wood, where the tiny golden tormentil made a carpet and the yellow pimpernel was closing her eager eyes.1917, Mary Webb, chapter 25, in Gone to Earth, New York: Dutton, page 206:
- Here and there a yellow tormentil showed in the grass, a late harebell or a few shreds of purple bloom on a brown, crisping tuft of self-heal.1972, Richard Adams, chapter 50, in Watership Down, London: Macmillan:
Synonyms of tormentil
Forms of tormentil
| plural | tormentils |
|---|
Origin of tormentil
From mediaeval Latin tormentilla (“minor pain”), perhaps referring to the conditions that the plant was used to treat.
Questions about tormentil
- What does tormentil mean?
- Tormentil means a low-growing herb (Potentilla erecta, syn. Potentilla tormentilla).
- How do you use tormentil in a sentence?
- The bracken, waist-high at first, was like small hoops at the top of the wood, where the tiny golden tormentil made a carpet and the yellow pimpernel was closing her eager eyes.
- What part of speech is tormentil?
- Tormentil is a noun.
- What is the plural of tormentil?
- The plural of tormentil is tormentils.
Words near tormentil in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tormentil (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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Cite this entry: “tormentil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tormentil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.