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The aromatic, pungent, dried stigmas, usually with part of the stile, of the Crocus sativus. Saffron is used in cookery, and in coloring confectionery, liquors, varnishes, etc., and was formerly much used in medicine.

Fig.: Bitter; sharp; pungent. I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me. Shak.

ting the sense as if pointed or cutting, keen, penetrating, acute: to the taste or smell, pungent, acid, sour, as ammonia has a sharp taste and odor; to the hearing, piercing, shrill, as a sharp sound or voice; to the eye, instantaneously brilliant, dazzling, as a sharp flash.

To make more pungent and intense; as, to sharpen a pain or disease.

To feel a lively, pungent local pain; -- said of some part of the body as the seat of irritation; as, my finger smarts; these wounds smart. Chaucer. Shak.

A European herbaceous plant (Achillea Ptarmica) allied to the yarrow, having a strong, pungent smell.

A vegetable production of many kinds, fragrant or aromatic and pungent to the taste, as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice, ginger, cloves, etc., which are used in cookery and to flavor sauces, pickles, etc. Hast thou aught in thy purse [bag] any hot spices Piers Plowman.

if with a goad; to excite, rouse, or animate, to action or more vigorous exertion by some pungent motive or by persuasion; as, to stimulate one by the hope of reward, or by the prospect of glory. To excite and stimulate us thereunto. Dr. J. Scott.

iercing, with a sting; inflicting acute pain as if with a sting, goad, or pointed weapon; pungent; biting; as, stinging cold; a stinging rebuke. -- Sting"ing*ly, adv. Stinging cell. (Zoöl.) Same as Lasso cell, under Lasso.

id), or an acid, H2CS3, analogous to carbonic acid, obtained as a yellow oily liquid of a pungent odor, and forming salts.

ld dual theory of salts. [Archaic] -- Sulphur dioxide (Chem.), a colorless gas, SO2, of a pungent, suffocating odor, produced by the burning of sulphur. It is employed chiefly in the production of sulphuric acid, and as a reagent in bleaching; -- called also sulphurous anhydride, and formerly sulphurous acid. -- Sulph…

The hypothetical radical SO2; -- called also sulphon. Sulphuryl chloride, a chloride, pungent, fuming liquid, SO2.Cl2, obtained by the action of phosphorus pentachloride on sulphur trioxide. On treatment with water it decomposes into sulphuric and hydrochloric acids, and is hence called also sulphuric chloranhydride.…

A kind of very pungent sauce made from red peppers.

Any plant of the labiate genus Thymus. The garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is a warm, pungent aromatic, much used to give a relish to seasoning and soups. Ankle deep in moss and flowery thyme. Cowper. Cat thyme, a labiate plant (Teucrium Marum) of the Mediterranean religion. Cats are said to be fond of rolling on it. J.…

To tickle; as, to titillate the nose with a feather. The pungent grains of titillating dust. Pope.

h; odontalgia. Toothache grass (Bot.), a kind of grass (Ctenium Americanum) having a very pungent taste. -- Toothache tree. (Bot.) (a) The prickly ash. (b) A shrub of the genus Aralia (A. spinosa).

Not forgettable; enduring in memory. Pungent and unforgettable truths. Emerson.

(Nasturtium officinale) growing usually in clear running or spring water. The leaves are pungent, and used for salad and as an antiscorbutic.