CROCUS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Crocus

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/krˈoʊkəs/ Listen

noun

Crocus n.

(Bot.) A genus of iridaceous plants, with pretty blossoms rising separately from the bulb or corm. Crocus vernus is one of the earliest of spring-blooming flowers; Crocus sativus produces the saffron, and blossoms in the autumn.

(Chem.) A deep yellow powder; the oxide of some metal calcined to a red or deep yellow color; esp., the oxide of iron (Crocus of Mars or colcothar) thus produced from salts of iron, and used as a polishing powder.

Crocus of Venus (Old Chem.), oxide of copper.

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Etymology of 'Crocus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Crocus" Quotes from Famous Books

... some shopping before meeting the train from the Midlands, but she would not do so. All morning she made herself busy in the house, and later in the day, hearing the wheels of the wagonette on the drive, she slipped out into the garden to visit a border where the crocus spears were pushing through the soil. She could not explain her own sudden shyness. She was tremulous, tremulous with life. There was a smell of spring in the air. Arthur came out to find her in the garden. His eyes glowed ...

— The Tragic Bride • Francis Brett Young

... to him. Beyond them the lane opened into a field and a clear lake of crocus sky cast a dim light into the shadow where they stood. Above it was a new moon, like a gleaming silver scimitar. Sara saw it was over her left shoulder, and she saw Lige's face above her, tender ...

— Further Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... little of this can be borne, when side by side with it is placed stain upon pure white. The reader will easily find, if he looks for them, plenty of examples in old glass, where the stain upon the white glass has taken even a rosy tinge exactly like that of a yellow crocus seen through its white sheath. It is perhaps owing partly to patina on the old glass, which "scumbles" it; but I have myself sometimes succeeded in getting the same effect by using yellow-stain on pure white glass. A whole window, ...

— Stained Glass Work - A text-book for students and workers in glass • C. W. Whall

... Venus; upon which he tells her, that she appeared more charming and desirable than she [6] done before, even when their Loves were at the highest. The Poet afterwards describes them as reposing on a Summet of Mount Ida, which produced under them a Bed of Flowers, the Lotos, the Crocus, and the Hyacinth; and concludes his ...

— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... on a bench by the flower-beds, gay in their spring charm of belated crocus and hyacinth and daffodil, with here and there a precocious tulip. Paul, sensitive to beauty, discoursed on flowers. Max Field had a studio in St. John's Wood opening out into a garden, which last summer was a dream of delight. He described it. When he came into his kingdom ...

— The Fortunate Youth • William J. Locke

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