HEMLOCK

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does hemlock mean? 

• HEMLOCK (noun)
  The noun HEMLOCK has 4 senses:

1. poisonous drug derived from an Eurasian plant of the genus Conium

2. large branching biennial herb native to Eurasia and Africa and adventive in North America having large fernlike leaves and white flowers; usually found in damp habitats; all parts extremely poisonous

3. soft coarse splintery wood of a hemlock tree especially the western hemlock

4. an evergreen tree

  Familiarity information: HEMLOCK used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEMLOCK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Poisonous drug derived from an Eurasian plant of the genus Conium

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Context example:

Socrates refused to flee and died by drinking hemlock

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

phytotoxin; plant toxin (any substance produced by plants that is similar in its properties to extracellular bacterial toxin)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Large branching biennial herb native to Eurasia and Africa and adventive in North America having large fernlike leaves and white flowers; usually found in damp habitats; all parts extremely poisonous

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

California fern; Conium maculatum; hemlock; Nebraska fern; poison hemlock; poison parsley; winter fern

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

poisonous plant (a plant that when touched or ingested in sufficient quantity can be harmful or fatal to an organism)

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

Conium; genus Conium (small genus of highly toxic biennials: hemlock)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Soft coarse splintery wood of a hemlock tree especially the western hemlock

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

Holonyms ("hemlock" is a substance of...):

hemlock; hemlock tree (an evergreen tree)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An evergreen tree

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

hemlock; hemlock tree

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

conifer; coniferous tree (any gymnospermous tree or shrub bearing cones)

Meronyms (substance of "hemlock"):

hemlock (soft coarse splintery wood of a hemlock tree especially the western hemlock)

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

Canadian hemlock; eastern hemlock; spruce pine; Tsuga canadensis (common forest tree of the eastern United States and Canada; used especially for pulpwood)

Carolina hemlock; Tsuga caroliniana (medium-sized evergreen of southeastern United States having spreading branches and widely diverging cone scales)

black hemlock; mountain hemlock; Tsuga mertensiana (large evergreen of western United States; wood much harder than Canadian hemlock)

Pacific hemlock; Tsuga heterophylla; west coast hemlock; western hemlock (tall evergreen of western North America; commercially important timber tree)

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

genus Tsuga; Tsuga (hemlock; hemlock fir; hemlock spruce)

 Context examples 

Beth was sorting the cones that lay thick under the hemlock near by, for she made pretty things with them.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)