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milkweed

[ milk-weed ]

noun

  1. any of several plants that secrete a milky juice or latex, especially those of the genus Asclepias, as A. syriaca. Compare milkweed family.
  2. any of various other plants having a milky juice, as certain spurges.


milkweed

/ ˈmɪlkˌwiːd /

noun

  1. Also calledsilkweed any plant of the mostly North American genus Asclepias, having milky sap and pointed pods that split open to release tufted seeds: family Asclepiadaceae See also asclepias
  2. any of various other plants having milky sap
  3. orange milkweed
    another name for butterfly weed
  4. another name for monarch
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of milkweed1

First recorded in 1590–1600; milk + weed 1
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Compare Meanings

How does milkweed compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

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Example Sentences

As a Midwesterner who grew up among prairies filled with milkweed, I balked at such fearmongering.

The article seems to blanket all milkweed as killer, but that’s just not true.

Anyone who wants to take monarchs and milkweed for these purposes would have to apply for special permits.

This global network has helped restore not only monarchs' summer breeding habitat by planting milkweed, but also general pollinator habitat by planting nectaring flowers across North America.

If it is female, she will lay her eggs on milkweeds, and the cycle will start again.

The accompanying use of these poisons has proven deadly to milkweed.

But the biggest factor is thought to be an accompanying decrease in milkweed, where the Monarchs lay their eggs along the way.

Other supporters of the milkweed effort include Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

Graywolf Press is there, along with Milkweed, Coffee House Press, Rain Taxi magazine.

Our milkweed is tenacious of life; its roots lie deep, as if to get away from the plow, but it seldom infests cultivated crops.

You are like pretty floating milkweed, you touch here and there in your travels.

I can find no record that the down of milkweed (or of any other plant) was used.

The other man, even shorter, but slimmer, sauntered out of a bed of milkweed whither he had been catapulted.

The creamy sap of the milkweed growing in the timothy meadow was drying up in the stem.

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milk vetchmilkweed beetle