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Sweet flag   /swit flæg/   Listen
noun
Flag  n.  (Bot.) An aquatic plant, with long, ensiform leaves, belonging to either of the genera Iris and Acorus.
Cooper's flag, the cat-tail (Typha latifolia), the long leaves of which are placed between the staves of barrels to make the latter water-tight.
Corn flag. See under 2d Corn.
Flag broom, a coarse of broom, originally made of flags or rushes.
Flag root, the root of the sweet flag.
Sweet flag. See Calamus, n., 2.



adjective
Sweet  adj.  (compar. sweeter; superl. sweetest)  
1.
Having an agreeable taste or flavor such as that of sugar; saccharine; opposed to sour and bitter; as, a sweet beverage; sweet fruits; sweet oranges.
2.
Pleasing to the smell; fragrant; redolent; balmy; as, a sweet rose; sweet odor; sweet incense. "The breath of these flowers is sweet to me."
3.
Pleasing to the ear; soft; melodious; harmonious; as, the sweet notes of a flute or an organ; sweet music; a sweet voice; a sweet singer. "To make his English sweet upon his tongue." "A voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful."
4.
Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair; as, a sweet face; a sweet color or complexion. "Sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains."
5.
Fresh; not salt or brackish; as, sweet water.
6.
Not changed from a sound or wholesome state. Specifically:
(a)
Not sour; as, sweet milk or bread.
(b)
Not state; not putrescent or putrid; not rancid; as, sweet butter; sweet meat or fish.
7.
Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners. "Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades?" "Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working." Note: Sweet is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, sweet-blossomed, sweet-featured, sweet-smelling, sweet-tempered, sweet-toned, etc.
Sweet alyssum. (Bot.) See Alyssum.
Sweet apple. (Bot.)
(a)
Any apple of sweet flavor.
(b)
Sweet bay. (Bot.)
(a)
The laurel (Laurus nobilis).
(b)
Swamp sassafras.
Sweet calabash (Bot.), a plant of the genus Passiflora (Passiflora maliformis) growing in the West Indies, and producing a roundish, edible fruit, the size of an apple.
Sweet cicely. (Bot.)
(a)
Either of the North American plants of the umbelliferous genus Osmorrhiza having aromatic roots and seeds, and white flowers.
(b)
A plant of the genus Myrrhis (Myrrhis odorata) growing in England.
Sweet calamus, or Sweet cane. (Bot.) Same as Sweet flag, below.
Sweet Cistus (Bot.), an evergreen shrub (Cistus Ladanum) from which the gum ladanum is obtained.
Sweet clover. (Bot.) See Melilot.
Sweet coltsfoot (Bot.), a kind of butterbur (Petasites sagittata) found in Western North America.
Sweet corn (Bot.), a variety of the maize of a sweet taste. See the Note under Corn.
Sweet fern (Bot.), a small North American shrub (Comptonia asplenifolia syn. Myrica asplenifolia) having sweet-scented or aromatic leaves resembling fern leaves.
Sweet flag (Bot.), an endogenous plant (Acorus Calamus) having long flaglike leaves and a rootstock of a pungent aromatic taste. It is found in wet places in Europe and America. See Calamus, 2.
Sweet gale (Bot.), a shrub (Myrica Gale) having bitter fragrant leaves; also called sweet willow, and Dutch myrtle. See 5th Gale.
Sweet grass (Bot.), holy, or Seneca, grass.
Sweet gum (Bot.), an American tree (Liquidambar styraciflua). See Liquidambar.
Sweet herbs, fragrant herbs cultivated for culinary purposes.
Sweet John (Bot.), a variety of the sweet William.
Sweet leaf (Bot.), horse sugar. See under Horse.
Sweet marjoram. (Bot.) See Marjoram.
Sweet marten (Zool.), the pine marten.
Sweet maudlin (Bot.), a composite plant (Achillea Ageratum) allied to milfoil.
Sweet oil, olive oil.
Sweet pea. (Bot.) See under Pea.
Sweet potato. (Bot.) See under Potato.
Sweet rush (Bot.), sweet flag.
Sweet spirits of niter (Med. Chem.) See Spirit of nitrous ether, under Spirit.
Sweet sultan (Bot.), an annual composite plant (Centaurea moschata), also, the yellow-flowered (Centaurea odorata); called also sultan flower.
Sweet tooth, an especial fondness for sweet things or for sweetmeats. (Colloq.)
Sweet William.
(a)
(Bot.) A species of pink (Dianthus barbatus) of many varieties.
(b)
(Zool.) The willow warbler.
(c)
(Zool.) The European goldfinch; called also sweet Billy. (Prov. Eng.)
Sweet willow (Bot.), sweet gale.
Sweet wine. See Dry wine, under Dry.
To be sweet on, to have a particular fondness for, or special interest in, as a young man for a young woman. (Colloq.)
Synonyms: Sugary; saccharine; dulcet; luscious.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sweet flag" Quotes from Famous Books



... as far as they have come to our knowledge, consist principally of Venus' hair, hart's tongue, lingwort, polypody, white mullein, priest's shoe, garden and sea-beach orach, water germander, tower-mustard, sweet flag, sassafras, crowfoot, platain, shepherd's purse, mallows, wild marjoram, crane's bill, marsh-mallows, false eglantine, laurel, violet, blue flag, wild indigo, solomon's seal, dragon's blood, comfrey, milfoil, many sorts of fern, wild lilies ...
— Narrative of New Netherland • Various

... following indication, from Mr Whitman himself, of the relation in which this word Calamus is to be understood:—"Calamus is the very large and aromatic grass or rush growing about water-ponds in the valleys—spears about three feet high; often called Sweet Flag; grows all over the Northern and Middle States. The recherche or ethereal sense of the term, as used in my book, arises probably from the actual Calamus presenting the biggest and hardiest kind of spears of grass, and their fresh, ...
— Poems By Walt Whitman • Walt Whitman

... Ledum, and Monotropa among the sympetalous heaths, are a remarkable instance of this. The whole evolution of the monocotyledons from the lowest orders of dicotyledons implies the seeming loss of cambial growth and many other qualities. In the order of aroids, from the calamus-root or sweet flag, with its small but complete flowers, up to the reduced duckweeds (Lemna), almost an unbroken line of intermediate steps may be traced showing everywhere the concurrence of progressive and ...
— Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation • Hugo DeVries



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