English

brushes: the brush lying horizontally across the bottom is a bottlebrush

Bottlebrush (Callistemon)

Stalactite with bottlebrush

Alternative forms

• bottle brush, bottle-brush

Noun

bottlebrush ‎(plural bottlebrushes)

1. A cylindrical brush on a thin shaft that is used to clean bottles.
2. Any of various trees or shrubs of the myrtle family, especially of the genera Callistemon and Melaleuca, native to Australia and adjacent areas, having spikes of flowers with numerous conspicuous stamens.
   • 2009, Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones, Allen & Unwin, p. 23:

     ‘But look, there's some grass up till this bottlebrush which looks like it's bin trampled.’

3. An uncommon cave formation resulting from a rise in water level such that a stalactite becomes immersed in water that is supersaturated with calcium carbonate, causing the stalactite to become coated with pool spar.