English

Noun

yerb ‎(plural yerbs)

1. Eye dialect spelling of herb.
   • 1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller:

     "At the same time we got a yerb" (such was his pronunciation) "on the hills, which some call lion-heart, and others snake-head."

   • 1895, Charles Egbert Craddock, The Phantoms Of The Foot-Bridge:

     When he ventured to sneeze, Mrs. Roxby compounded and administered a "yerb tea," a sovereign remedy against colds, which he tasted on compulsion and in great doubt, and swallowed with alacrity and confidence, finding its basis the easily recognizable "toddy."

   • 1911, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Brother Copas:

     The ancients, by which I mean the Greeks, set amazin' store by the yerb.

Anagrams

• byre