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Heliotrope - What does it mean?

heliotrope | |

heliotrope

Noun

  • (botany) A plant that turns so that it faces the sun.
  • (botany) Particularly, a purple-flowered plant of the species .
  • * 1870, Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair
  • As they entered now, it seemed a blaze of roses and carnations, though one recognized in a moment the presence of the lily, the heliotrope, and the stock.
  • A light purple or violet colour.
  • * 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , page 623
  • "...the face of Dr. Willi Dingkopf, framed by a haircut in violation of more than one law of physics, and a vivid necktie in fuchsia, heliotrope, and duck green..."
  • The fragrance of heliotrope flowers.
  • * 1881, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
  • ... he had always smelt so much more of heliotrope than of gunpowder.
  • * 1906 , O. Henry,
  • Ransacking the drawers of the dresser he came upon a discarded, tiny, ragged handkerchief. He pressed it to his face. It was racy and insolent with heliotrope ; [...]
  • (mineral) A bloodstone (a variety of quartz).
  • (surveying) An instrument, employed in triangulation, that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight toward another, very distant, surveyor.
  • Synonyms

    * (rock) bloodstone

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Light purple or violet.
  • * 1904, Jerome K. Jerome, Tommy and Co.
  • Lady in a heliotrope dress with a lace collar, three flounces on the skirt?
  • * 1917, Zane Grey, Wildfire
  • And following that was a tortuous passage through a weird region of clay dunes, blue and violet and heliotrope and lavender, all worn smooth by rain and wind.
  • Keeping one’s face turned toward the sun.
  • * 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
  • while still as on the night before, slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle; his hid, heliotrope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat due eastward for the earliest sun.

    Derived terms

    * (colour) heliotrope cyanosis

    Derived terms

    * winter heliotrope

    See also

    *

    Not English

    has no English definition. It may be misspelled.