Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Ivy

I′vy

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Ivies
(#)
.
[AS.
īfig
; akin to OHG.
ebawi
,
ebah
, G.
epheu
.]
(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.
Milton.
Ye myrtles brown, with
ivy
never sere.
Milton.
American ivy
.
(Bot.)
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.
Tennyson.
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.]
Chaucer.
West Indian ivy
,
a climbing plant of the genus
Marcgravia
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Ivy

I'VY

,
Noun.
A parasitic plant of the genus Hedera, which creeps along the ground, or if it finds support, rises on trees or buildings, climbing to a great highth.

Definition 2024


Ivy

Ivy

See also: ivy

English

Proper noun

Ivy

  1. A female given name; popular in the UK in the beginning of the 20th century.
    • 1882 Something to Read. (Edited by) Edwin John Bret: Something to read novelette. page 254:
      Little Ivy's life, as the months pass on, is a quiet, uneventful one, but exceedingly happy withal: - - - "You have a strange name, my dear," the old lady says one day, and the child answers in her serious, old-fashioned way, "Yes, so everyone has always said. You know my mamma died when I was born, and papa named me that because he said that I came when his heart was all aching with sorrow, and twined around it and comforted him."
    • 1974 Patrick White: The Cockatoos: Shorter Novels and Stories. Cape,1974. ISBN 0224009923 page 204:
      Kind people apply all the milder words to your face; only Father ever called it ugly. Ugly Ivy mingy as her name. Father himself was handsome and drunken. Mother had wanted 'Ivy' simple and yet pretty and for once stuck to her guns. You wished she hadn't.

ivy

ivy

See also: Ivy

English

Ivy growing near and climbing up trees.

Noun

ivy (plural ivies)

  1. Any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera.
  2. Any similar plant of any genus.

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

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