jimson weed
- noun
- /ˈdʒɪm.sən wiːd/
- US
:
estramonio
- I recall a case in one of the Medical Detectives books of a family who were poisoned because they grafted tomatoes onto jimson weed and didn't realize that the tomatoes thus produced would share the poisonous properties of the jimson.
Examples
-
The leaves of jimson weed have a foul smell and should be avoided due to their poisonous properties.
-
Children and pets are at risk if they come into contact with jimson weed, as it is highly toxic.
-
I can't let my students drink jimson weed.
-
The Chumash stopped using jimson weed because it kills.
-
A man either chewed some of the jimson weed or drank some of it in a solution.
Academic text (1994) -
It is crucial to educate the public about the dangers of jimson weed, especially its lethal effects when ingested.
Synonyms
2
9.9
A tall poisonous plant with large trumpet-shaped flowers and spiky seed pods
A tall yearly weed with strong-smelling leaves and white or purple trumpet flowers that is very poisonous
A tall poisonous plant with bad-smelling leaves, large trumpet-shaped flowers, and spiky fruit
A poisonous tropical plant with big trumpet-like flowers, prickly fruits, and leaves that smell very bad
A tall tropical plant that grows quickly, smells strong, has large trumpet-shaped flowers, and prickly poisonous fruit
How Poisonous
Surface Forms
Morphology
jimson + weed
The element 'weed' makes it clear to a B1 learner that the phrase names a kind of plant (likely an unwanted or wild plant), but 'jimson' is a proper name with no transparent lexical meaning, so the specific identity and properties (tall, coarse, poisonous) cannot be derived from the parts. Because part of the meaning (that it is a plant/weed) is transparent while the crucial identifying information is opaque, the overall expression is only partly predictable.
Etymology
Jimson weed may come from 'Jamestown', where early English settlers once ate the plant and became very sick and confused. Because of that dangerous event, the name stuck and today jimson weed means a poisonous plant.