IVY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Ivy

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/ˈaɪvi/ Listen

noun

Ivy n. (pl. ivies) (Bot.) A plant of the genus Hedera (Hedera helix), common in Europe. Its leaves are evergreen, dark, smooth, shining, and mostly five-pointed; the flowers yellowish and small; the berries black or yellow. The stem clings to walls and trees by rootlike fibers. "Direct The clasping ivy where to climb." "Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere."

American ivy. (Bot.) See Virginia creeper.

English ivy (Bot.), a popular name in America for the ivy proper (Hedera helix).

German ivy (Bot.), a creeping plant, with smooth, succulent stems, and fleshy, light-green leaves; a species of Senecio (Senecio scandens).

Ground ivy. (Bot.) Gill (Nepeta Glechoma).

Ivy bush. (Bot.) See Mountain laurel, under Mountain.

Ivy owl (Zool.), the barn owl.

Ivy tod (Bot.), the ivy plant.

Japanese ivy (Bot.), a climbing plant (Ampelopsis tricuspidata), closely related to the Virginia creeper.

Poison ivy (Bot.), an American woody creeper (Rhus Toxicodendron), with trifoliate leaves, and greenish-white berries. It is exceedingly poisonous to the touch for most persons.

To pipe in an ivy leaf, to console one's self as best one can. (Obs.)

West Indian ivy, a climbing plant of the genus Marcgravia.

See images of 'Ivy'

Etymology of 'Ivy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ivy" Quotes from Famous Books

... porcelain ranged there in the window— Platters and soup-plates done with pale pink rosebuds, And tiny violets, and wreaths of ivy? See how the pattern clings to the gleaming edges! They're works of art—minutely seen and felt, Each petal done devoutly. Is it failure To spend your ...

— The House of Dust - A Symphony • Conrad Aiken

... have not the entree of society, the charms of nature and the attractions of English scenery are spread before him. His guide-book will tell him of grotesque rocks upon lonely heaths where Druids may have worshipped; and of Bayham Abbey, with its mouldering walls and 'antiquary ivy,' which still attests amidst its ruins the luxury and wealth of its ancient masters. He may look in one direction over the broad lands and towering spires of Eridge Castle, or turning in another, soon ...

— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various

... Victorian speculative builder; who, in their stead, has erected full complement of the architectural platitudes common to his age and taste. Dignity has very sensibly given place to gentility. Nevertheless the timid red, or sickly yellow-grey, brick of the existing houses is pleasingly veiled by ivy and Virginia creeper, while no shop front obtrudes derogatory suggestion of retail trade. The local authorities, moreover, some ten years back girdled the Green with healthy young balsam-poplar and plane trees and enclosed the grass with iron hurdles—to rescue it from trampling into unsightly ...

— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet

... moon arose in great splendour, and little Henry saw at a distance an old abbey, all covered with ivy, and looking so dark and dismal, it would frighten any one from going in. But Henry's little heart, occupied by the idea of his mamma, and with grief that he could not find her, felt no fear; but walking in, he saw a cell in the corner that looked like a baby-house, and, with Fidelle by his ...

— The Adventures of Little Bewildered Henry • Anonymous

... things to his campus. There were dozens of buildings now surrounding Sanford Hall, and they revealed all the types of architecture popular since Hezekiah had thundered his last defiance at Satan. There were fine old colonial buildings, their windows outlined by English ivy; ponderous Romanesque buildings made of stone, grotesque and hideous; a pseudo-Gothic chapel with a tower of surpassing loveliness; and four laboratories of the purest factory design. But despite the conglomerate and sometimes absurd architecture—a ...

— The Plastic Age • Percy Marks

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