Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Heliotrope
He′li-o-trope
,Noun.
1.
(Anc. Astron.)
An instrument or machine for showing when the sun arrived at the tropics and equinoctial line.
2.
(Bot.)
A plant of the genus
Heliotropium
; – called also turnsole
and girasole
. Heliotropium Peruvianum
is the commonly cultivated species with fragrant flowers. 3.
(Geodesy & Signal Service)
An instrument for making signals to an observer at a distance, by means of the sun’s rays thrown from a mirror.
Webster 1828 Edition
Heliotrope
HE'LIOTROPE
,Noun.
1.
Among the ancients, an instrument or machine for showing when the sun arrived at the tropics and the equinoctial line.2.
A genus or plants, the turnsole.3.
A mineral, a subspecies of rhomboidal quartz, of a deep green color, peculiarly pleasant to the eye. It is usually variegated with blood red or yellowish dots, and is more or less translucent. Before the blowpipe, it loses its color. It is generally supposed to be chalcedony, colored by green earth or chlorite.Definition 2024
heliotrope
heliotrope
See also: héliotrope
English
a heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens)
Noun
heliotrope (countable and uncountable, plural heliotropes)
Surveying heliotrope (ca.1878): B.A. Colonna collection (NOAA)..
- (botany) A plant that turns so that it faces the sun.
- (botany) Particularly, a purple-flowered plant of the species Heliotropium arborescens.
- 1870, Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair
- As they entered now, it seemed a blaze of roses and carnations, though one recognized in a moment the presence of the lily, the 'heliotrope, and the stock.
- 1870, Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair
- (botany) Particularly, a purple-flowered plant of the species Heliotropium arborescens.
- A light purple or violet colour.
-
heliotrope colour:
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, page 623
- "...the face of Dr. Willi Dingkopf, framed by a haircut in violation of more than one law of physics, and a vivid necktie in fuchsia, heliotrope, and duck green..."
-
- The fragrance of heliotrope flowers.
- 1881, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
- ... he had always smelt so much more of heliotrope than of gunpowder.
- 1906, O. Henry, The Furnished Room
- Ransacking the drawers of the dresser he came upon a discarded, tiny, ragged handkerchief. He pressed it to his face. It was racy and insolent with heliotrope; [...]
- 1881, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
- (mineralogy) A bloodstone (a variety of quartz).
- (surveying) An instrument, employed in triangulation, that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight toward another, very distant, surveyor.
Synonyms
- (Heliotropium arborescens): cherry pie, common heliotrope
- (rock): bloodstone
Related terms
- (direction): heliotropism
Translations
plant that turns so that it faces the sun
|
|
Heliotropium arborescens
|
|
rock — see bloodstone
Adjective
heliotrope (comparative more heliotrope, superlative most heliotrope)
- Light purple or violet.
- 1904, Jerome K. Jerome, Tommy and Co.
- Lady in a heliotrope dress with a lace collar, three flounces on the skirt?
- 1917, Zane Grey, Wildfire
- And following that was a tortuous passage through a weird region of clay dunes, blue and violet and heliotrope and lavender, all worn smooth by rain and wind.
- 1904, Jerome K. Jerome, Tommy and Co.
- Keeping one’s face turned toward the sun.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
- while still as on the night before, slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle; his hid, heliotrope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat due eastward for the earliest sun.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Derived terms
- (colour): heliotrope cyanosis
Related terms
- (direction): heliotropic
Derived terms
- winter heliotrope
See also
- Appendix:Colors