crane's bill
- noun
- /ˈkreɪnz bɪl/
:
geranio
- The crane's bill species is known for its long seed pods that resemble a crane's beak.
Examples
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She planted several varieties of crane's bill to attract bees and butterflies.
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The crane's bill blooms beautifully in spring.
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Botanists admire the distinctive seed pods of the crane's bill species.
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The garden was filled with blooming crane's bill in early summer.
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I planted a crane's bill in my garden this year.
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The garden was filled with blooming crane's bill in early summer.
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She planted several varieties of crane's bill to attract bees and butterflies.
Synonyms
6
5.0
A plant with bright flowers often grown in gardens
A plant that lives for more than one year and has hand-shaped leaves and showy five-petaled flowers
A tall plant that lives for many years and has bright blue flowers that grow in meadows
A common wild geranium with deeply divided leaves and pink-purple flowers
A small plant with a pleasant smell, oak-shaped leaves, and groups of yellow-green flowers
Surface Forms
Morphology
crane's + bill
The compound names comefrom a clear imagery: 'crane's' (the bird) + 'bill' (beak) describes something with a beak-like form, which matches the plant's seed-pod shape. This possessive-noun naming pattern is a transparent descriptive strategy and, especially with contextual clues (e.g. 'blooms'), a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the MWE refers to a plant with a crane‑like bill.
Etymology
Crane's bill comes from the plant's long, thin 'seed pods' that look like a bird's 'beak', and the words crane's and bill point to that shape. So crane's bill is the name for a plant like a geranium that has those beak-shaped 'seed pods'.