lady's laces
- noun
- Specialized
:
hierba de la dama
- The wetlands were carpeted with lady's laces, their broad leaves swaying gently in the breeze.
Examples
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She pointed out the lady's laces growing alongside the ditch during our nature walk.
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Botanists recorded a large patch of lady's laces in the marshy meadow last spring.
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Look at those lady's laces!
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Wow! Those lady's laces are beautiful!
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Botanists recorded a large patch of lady's laces in the marshy meadow last spring.
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She pointed out the lady's laces growing alongside the ditch during our nature walk.
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The wetlands were carpeted with lady's laces, their broad leaves swaying gently in the breeze.
Synonyms
A grass with broad leaves that grows for many years in marshy meadows and ditches
A tall grass that lives for many years and grows in wet places like riverbanks and ditches
A tall grass with wide leaves that grows in wet places
A grass that lives for many years with broad striped leaves that grows in wet places like ponds and ditches
Surface Forms
Morphology
lady's + laces
This is a conventionalized plant name whose meaning (a specific perennial grass) cannot be derived from the constituents 'lady's' (possessive of 'lady') and 'laces' (cords used for fastening). The phrase is lexicalized and culture-specific rather than compositional, so a B1 learner who knows the individual words would not predict the botanical meaning.
Etymology
The name lady's laces may come from the plant's small, delicate flowers that look like the fine laces on a lady's dress, so people thought of that pretty image. That's why the grass is still called 'lady's laces' today.
