monkshood

See also: monk's hood

English

Wikispecies

Alternative forms

• monk's hood

Etymology

From monk +‎ -s- +‎ hood.

Noun

monkshood (countable and uncountable, plural monkshoods)

1. (countable) Any of various poisonous plants, of the genus Aconitum, with blue or white flowers in the shape of a hood.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 280:

     In the shady retreat under the hill grew clusters of luxuriant ferns; the wild French willow stood proudly with its lofty crest of red and gorgeous flowers between the pebbles, but the sedate monk's hood lifted its head still higher and looked gloomily and wickedly down on it, while it nodded and kept time to the cuckoo's song, as if it were counting how many days it had to live.

2. (uncountable) The dried leaves or flowers of these plants formerly used as a source of medicinal alkaloids.

Synonyms

• (Aconitum): aconite, wolfsbane

Related terms

• monkshood vine

Translations

herbs of the genus Aconitum — see aconite

See also

• Aconitum on Wikispecies.Wikispecies