Bach·e·lor's but·ton Bot. A plant with flowers shaped like buttons; especially, several species of Ranunculus, and the cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) and globe amaranth (Gomphrena).
Note: ☞ Bachelor's buttons, a name given to several flowers “from their similitude to the jagged cloathe buttons, anciently worne in this kingdom,” according to Johnson's --Gerarde, p. 472 (1633); but by other writers ascribed to “a habit of country fellows to carry them in their pockets to divine their success with their sweethearts.”
◄ ►
Blue·bot·tle, blue-bottle n.
1. Bot. an annual Eurasian plant (Centaurea cyanus) which grows in grain fields; -- called also bachelor's button. It receives its name from its blue bottle-shaped flowers. Varieties cultivated in North America have showy heads of blue or purple or pink or white flowers
Syn: -- cornflower, bachelor's button.
2. Zool. A large and troublesome species of blowfly (Musca vomitoria). Its body is steel blue.
◄ ►
bachelor's button
n 1: an annual Eurasian plant cultivated in North America having
showy heads of blue or purple or pink or white flowers
[syn: cornflower, bluebottle, Centaurea cyanus]
2: tropical American herb having rose to red or purple flowers
that can be dried without losing color [syn: globe
amaranth, Gomphrena globosa]