NIGHTSHADE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does nightshade mean? 

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

1. any of numerous shrubs or herbs or vines of the genus Solanum; most are poisonous though many bear edible fruit

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• NIGHTSHADE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous shrubs or herbs or vines of the genus Solanum; most are poisonous though many bear edible fruit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

ligneous plant; woody plant (a plant having hard lignified tissues or woody parts especially stems)

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

kangaroo apple; poroporo; Solanum aviculare (Australian annual sometimes cultivated for its racemes of purple flowers and edible yellow egg-shaped fruit)

ball nettle; ball nightshade; bull nettle; horse nettle; Solanum carolinense (coarse prickly weed having pale yellow flowers and yellow berrylike fruit; common throughout southern and eastern United States)

bittersweet; bittersweet nightshade; climbing nightshade; deadly nightshade; poisonous nightshade; Solanum dulcamara; woody nightshade (poisonous perennial Old World vine having violet flowers and oval coral-red berries; widespread weed in North America)

prairie berry; purple nightshade; silver-leaved nettle; silver-leaved nightshade; silverleaf nightshade; Solanum elaeagnifolium; trompillo; white horse nettle (weedy nightshade with silvery foliage and violet or blue or white flowers; roundish berry widely used to curdle milk; central United States to South America)

African holly; Solanum giganteum (woolly-stemmed biennial arborescent shrub of tropical Africa and southern Asia having silvery-white prickly branches, clusters of blue or white flowers, and bright red berries resembling holly berries)

black nightshade; common nightshade; poison-berry; poisonberry; Solanum nigrum (Eurasian herb naturalized in America having white flowers and poisonous hairy foliage and bearing black berries that are sometimes poisonous but sometimes edible)

Jerusalem cherry; Madeira winter cherry; Solanum pseudocapsicum; winter cherry (small South American shrub cultivated as a houseplant for its abundant ornamental but poisonous red or yellow cherry-sized fruit)

buffalo bur; Solanum rostratum (North American nightshade with prickly foliage and racemose yellow flowers)

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

genus Solanum; Solanum (type genus of the Solanaceae: nightshade; potato; eggplant; bittersweet)

 Context examples 

Cultivated in India and North America, ashwagandha (Withania somnifera Dunal or Indian ginseng) belongs to the Solanaceae (nightshade) family.

(Ashwagandha Root Powder Extract, NCI Thesaurus)