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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

12 words match “CACTUS”

CACTUS n.
often beset with clustered thorns, and are mostly natives of the warmer parts of America. Cactus wren (Zoöl.), an American wren of the genus Campylorhynchus, of several species.
CEREUS n.
A genus of plants of the Cactus family. They are natives of America, from California to Chili.
COCHINEAL n.
cacti, an insect native in Mexico, Central America, etc., and found on several species of cactus, esp. Opuntia cochinellifera.
COCHINEAL FIG n.
A plant of Central and Southern Anerica, of the Cactus familly, extensively cultivated for the sake of the cochineal insect, which lives on it.
CONSOLIDATED p.
Having a small surface in proportion to bulk, as in the cactus. Consolidated plants are evidently adapted and designed for very dry regions; in such only they are found. Gray. The Consolidated Fund, a British fund formed by consolidating (in 1787) three public funds (the Aggregate Fund, the General Fund, and the South…
FLESHY a.
Composed of firm pulp; succulent; as, the houseleek, cactus, and agave are fleshy plants.
HEDGEHOG n.
e, marine, univalve shell of the genus Murex. -- Hedgehog thistle (Bot.), a plant of the Cactus family, globular in form, and covered with spines (Echinocactus). -- Sea hedgehog. See Diodon.
MELON n.
mall leaf beetle (Diabrotiea vittata), which damages the leaves of melon vines. -- Melon cactus, Melon thistle. (a) (Bot.) A genus of cactaceous plants (Melocactus) having a fleshy and usually globose stem with the surface divided into spiny longitudinal ridges, and bearing at the top a prickly and woolly crown in whi…
OLD a.
The Tillandsia usneoides. See Tillandsia. -- Old man's head (Bot.), a columnar cactus (Pilocereus senilis), native of Mexico, covered towards the top with long white hairs. -- Old red sandstone (Geol.), a series of red sandstone rocks situated below the rocks of the Carboniferous age and comprising various strata of…
SUWARROW n.
The giant cactus (Cereus giganteus); -- so named by the Indians of Arizona. Called also saguaro.
TURK n.
A plant of the genus Melocactus; Turk's head. See Melon cactus, under Melon. -- Turk's head. (a) (Naut.) A knot of turbanlike form worked on a rope with a piece of small line. R. H. Dana, Jr. (b) (Bot.) See Turk's cap (c) above. -- Turk's turban (Bot.), a plant of the genus Ranunculus; crowfoot.
TURK'S-HEAD n. 2 definitions
The melon cactus. [West Indies]