sweet four o'clock

9.9

A leafy wildflower with sweet-smelling white or pale pink trumpet flowers that blooms late afternoon

noun

: maravilla

The sweet four o'clock blooms in the late afternoon, filling the air with its delicate fragrance.

Examples

Gardeners in Arizona often plant sweet four o'clock for its beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers.
I spotted a patch of sweet four o'clock while hiking near the Mexican border.
The sweet four o'clock blooms in the evening.
I love the scent of sweet four o'clocks in my garden.
Gardeners in Arizona often plant sweet four o'clock for its beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers.
I spotted a patch of sweet four o'clock while hiking near the Mexican border.
The sweet four o'clock blooms in the late afternoon, filling the air with its delicate fragrance.

Synonyms

maravilla

vssweet four o'clock

1 9.9

A wildflower with trumpet-shaped flowers that grows in dry parts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico

gives a more detailed picture emphasizing slender fragrant pale trumpet flowers

Mirabilis longiflora

vssweet four o'clock

Specialized

9.9

A leafy wildflower with long white or pale pink trumpet-shaped flowers that smell sweet in the evening

is the common name used informally rather than the scientific form

Surface Forms

sweet four o'clock singular

sweet four o'clocks plural

Morphology

sweet + four + o'clock

The adjective 'sweet' transparently suggests a pleasant scent, but the noun 'four o'clock' is primarily a time expression and is not obviously interpretable as the name of a plant by learners. Because the compound relies on lexical knowledge that 'four o'clock' names a flower, a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably infer the botanical meaning, making the phrase partially but not fully transparent.

Etymology

Sweet four o'clock is named for what its flowers do: the trumpet-like blooms smell sweet and usually open in the late afternoon, often around four o'clock, so the name tells you both its fragrance and when it blooms.