Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Herb
Herb
(ẽrb or hẽrb; 277)
, Noun.
[OE.
herbe
, erbe
, OF. herbe
, erbe
, F. herbe
, L. herba
; perh. akin to Gr. φορβή
food, pasture, φέρβειν
to feed.] 1.
A plant whose stem does not become woody and permanent, but dies, at least down to the ground, after flowering.
☞ Annual herbs live but one season; biennial herbs flower the second season, and then die; perennial herbs produce new stems year after year.
2.
Grass; herbage.
And flocks
Grazing the tender
Grazing the tender
herb
. Milton.
Herb bennet
. (Bot.)
See
– Bennet
. Herb Christopher
(Bot.)
, an herb (
– Actaea spicata
), whose root is used in nervous diseases; the baneberry. The name is occasionally given to other plants, as the royal fern, the wood betony, etc. Herb Gerard
(Bot.)
, the goutweed; – so called in honor of St.
Gerard
, who used to be invoked against the gout. Dr. Prior.
– Herb grace
, or Herb of grace
(Bot.)
See
– Rue
. Herb Margaret
(Bot.)
, the daisy. See
– Marguerite
. Herb Paris
(Bot.)
, an Old World plant related to the trillium (
– Paris quadrifolia
), commonly reputed poisonous. Herb Robert
(Bot.)
, a species of
Geranium
(Geranium Robertianum
.)Webster 1828 Edition
Herb
HERB
,Noun.
erb.
1.
A plant or vegetable with a soft or succulent stalk or stem, which dies to the root every year, and is thus distinguished from a tree and a shrub, which have ligneous or hard woody stems.2.
In the Linnean botany, that part of a vegetable which springs from the root and is terminated by the fructification, including the stem or stalk, the leaves, the fulcra or props,and the hibernacle.The word herb comprehends all the grasses, and numerous plants used for culinary purposes.