wild pink
- noun
- US
:
clavel silvestre
- Bees are often seen collecting nectar from wild pink flowers in the wildflower preserve.
Examples
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The wild pink blooms added a splash of color to the garden in early spring.
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Not initially deducing the cause of his demise, she reaches down to retrieve a beautiful wild pink rose, only to discover that it is growing out of the noose that has been used to lynch the man.
Academic text (2017) -
In the meadow, I spotted a cluster of wild pinks swaying gently in the breeze.
Synonyms
A plant that lives for several years with small pink or white flowers in hairy clusters
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'wild' (growing naturally) modifies 'pink' (the Dianthus flower), so a learner who knows both constituent senses can infer it refers to non-cultivated/predominantly wild specimens of the pink. This follows a basic adjective+noun pattern common cross-linguistically, making the phrase immediately understandable to B1 learners who know the words.
Etymology
Wild pink is a simple name: wild means it grows in nature, not in a garden, and pink comes from the color of its flowers, which are often pink or white. So the name means 'a wild flowering plant with pink or white blossoms' today.
