BUTTERCUP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does buttercup mean? 

• BUTTERCUP (noun)
  The noun BUTTERCUP has 1 sense:

1. any of various plants of the genus Ranunculus

  Familiarity information: BUTTERCUP used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BUTTERCUP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various plants of the genus Ranunculus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

butter-flower; buttercup; butterflower; crowfoot; goldcup; kingcup

Hypernyms ("buttercup" is a kind of...):

herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buttercup"):

meadow buttercup; Ranunculus acris; tall buttercup; tall crowfoot; tall field buttercup (perennial European buttercup with yellow spring flowers widely naturalized especially in eastern North America)

common buttercup; Ranunculus bulbosus (perennial Old World buttercup with golden to sulphur yellow flowers in late spring to early summer; naturalized in North America)

Mount Cook lily; mountain lily; Ranunculus lyalii (showy white-flowered perennial of New Zealand)

Ranunculus occidentalis; western buttercup (perennial of western North America)

creeping buttercup; creeping crowfoot; Ranunculus repens (perennial European herb with long creeping stolons)

celery-leaved buttercup; cursed crowfoot; Ranunculus sceleratus (annual herb growing in marshy places)

Holonyms ("buttercup" is a member of...):

genus Ranunculus; Ranunculus (annual, biennial or perennial herbs: buttercup; crowfoot)

 Context examples 

Here there was a choke that couldn't be controlled, so he decapitated buttercups while he cleared his 'confounded throat'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was much harder to find their way back through the big fields of buttercups and yellow daisies than it was being carried.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

They thanked him and bade him good-bye, and turned toward the West, walking over fields of soft grass dotted here and there with daisies and buttercups.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)