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A name given to several inconspicuous plants having leaves in whorls of four, as species of Crucianella, Valantia, etc.

also, any plant or flower of the genus. The numerous varieties of cultivated dahlias bear conspicuous flowers which differ in color.

Conspicuously; showily. [Colloq.] A dashingly dressed gentleman. Hawthorne.

To appoint; to assign; to choose. [R.] The most conspicuous places in cities are usually deputed for the erection of statues. Barrow.

To make an exhibition of; to set in view conspicuously or ostentatiously; to exhibit for the sake of publicity; to parade. Proudly displaying the insignia of their order. Prescott.

Unfolded; expanded; exhibited conspicuously or ostentatiously.

Conspicuous station; eminence; superiority; honorable estimation; as, a man of distinction. Your country's own means of distinction and defense. D. Webster.

To deck in glaring colors; to set off conspicuously; to display pompously; to decorate. The walls were . . . emblazoned with legends in commemoration of the illustrious pair. Prescott.

ether by birth, high station, merit, or virtue; high in public estimation; distinguished; conspicuous; as, an eminent station; an eminent historian, statements, statesman, or saint. Right of eminent domain. (Law) See under Domain.

In an eminent manner; in a high degree; conspicuously; as, to be eminently learned.

m an enchanter fleeing. Shelley. Enchanter's nightshade (Bot.), a genus (Circæa) of low inconspicuous, perennial plants, found in damp, shady places.

feeling. "The expression of an eye." Tennyson. It still wore the majesty of expression so conspicuous in his portraits by the inimitable pencil of Titian. Prescott.

Publicly known; conspicuous. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

; in allusion to the ripple which a ship throws off from her bows. (b) To make one's self conspicuous.[Colloq.] -- To show the white feather, to betray cowardice, -- a white feather in the tail of a cock being considered an indication that he is not of the true game breed.

Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendor; show. That he may live in figure and indulgence. Law.

Having conspicuous flowers; -- used as an epithet with many names of plants; as, flowering ash; flowering dogwood; flowering almond, etc. Flowering fern, a genus of showy ferns (Osmunda), with conspicuous bivalvular sporangia. They usually grow in wet places. -- Flowering plants, plants which have stamens and pistils,…

The most conspicuous part. The very head and front of my offending. Shak.

or phase which bears sex organs. In the lower plants, as the algæ, the gametophyte is the conspicuous part of the plant body; in mosses it is the so-called moss plant; in ferns it is reduced to a small, early perishing body; and in seed plants it is usually microscopic or rudimentary.

ecies (esp. E. saurita and E. sirtalis); one of the striped snakes; -- so called from its conspicuous stripes of color.

A conspicuous yellow flower, commonly the corn marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum). [This word is variously corrupted into gouland, gools, gowan, etc.]