yellow rocket

8.8

A weed with yellow flowers that often grows in fields and along roads

noun

: cohete amarillo

You can identify yellow rocket by its bright yellow blossoms and tall, slender stem.

Examples

The field was covered with yellow rocket after a rainy spring.
Gardeners often remove yellow rocket to protect crops from its invasive growth.
Look at that yellow rocket!
The yellow rocket blooms in spring.
Gardeners often remove yellow rocket to protect crops from its invasive growth.
The field was covered with yellow rocket after a rainy spring.
You can identify yellow rocket by its bright yellow blossoms and tall, slender stem.

Synonyms

Barbarea vulgaris

vsyellow rocket

Specialized

9.2

A common wild plant with small yellow flowers that grows in fields and gardens

is the common weed name used more generally for that plant

Sisymbrium barbarea

vsyellow rocket

Specialized

9.9

A harmful plant with bright yellow flowers that often grows where people do not want it

is the common roadside weed label rather than the technical species name

Surface Forms

yellow rocket singular

yellow rockets plural

Morphology

yellow + rocket

The meaning is directly derivable from the constituent words: 'yellow' names the colour and 'rocket' (here the plant sense) names the species, so the phrase denotes a rocket plant that is yellow. Colour + noun combinations are highly compositional and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer this referent.

Etymology

Yellow rocket may come from how the plant has bright yellow flowers and a long, upright stem that seems to shoot up like a rocket from the ground. So the name gives a clear picture and helps you remember it means a common 'weed' with yellow blossoms.