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Webster 1913 Edition

Cress

Cress

(krĕs)
,
Noun.
;
pl.
Cresses
(krĕs′ĕz)
.
[OE.
ces
,
cresse
,
kers
,
kerse
, AS.
cresse
,
cerse
; akin to D.
kers
, G.
kresse
, Dan.
karse
, Sw.
krasse
, and possibly also to OHG.
chresan
to creep.]
(Bot.)
A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.
☞ The garden cress, called also
peppergrass
, is the
Lepidium sativum
; the water cress is the
Nasturtium officinale
. Various other plants are sometimes called cresses.
To strip the brook with mantling
cresses
spread.
Goldsmith.
Bitter cress
.
See under
Bitter
.
–
Not worth a cress
, or
“not worth a kers.”
a common old proverb, now turned into the meaningless “not worth a curse.”
Skeat.

Webster 1828 Edition

Cress

CRESS

,
Noun.
[G., L.] The name of several species of plants, most of them of the class tetradynamia. Watercresses, of the genus Sisymbrium, are used as a salad, and are valued in medicine for their antiscorbutic qualities. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste. They grow on the brinks of rivulets and in other moist grounds. The word is generally used in the plural.

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