columbine

plural columbines

1. Any plant of the genus Aquilegia, having distinctive bell-shaped flowers with spurs on each petal.

comparative more columbine · superlative most columbine

1. archaicPertaining to a dove or pigeon.

   Near-synonyms: columboid, peristeronic

   1 more example

   It is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent.

   1605, Francis Bacon, “(please specify |book=1 or 2)”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: columbid, columboid, peristeronic

1. A census-designated place in Arapahoe County and Jefferson County, Colorado, United States.

   In 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 12 of their fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives in the school library.

   2012 April 3, Laura Smith-Spark, “Are mass killings on the increase? Criminologist says no”, in CNN, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2021

2. The sweetheart of Harlequin in old pantomimes.

   The Clown is a London cockney, with a prodigious eye to his own comfort and muffins,—a Lord Mayor's fool, who loved "everything that was good;" and Columbine is the boarding-school girl, ripe for running away with, and making a dance of it all the way from Chelsea to Gretna Green.

   1845, Leigh Hunt, The Indicator: a Miscellany for the Fields and the Fireside, page 213

plural Columbines

1. slangAn incident in which someone shoots multiple people at a school.

   You've got people in your schools right now plotting a Columbine.

   2013, Annette Fuentes, Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse

   4 more examples

   Research indicates that many children are afraid of “a Columbine” occurring in their school, or are concerned about other forms of school violence (Aronson, 2000; Garbarino & deLara, 2002; Gaughan et al., 2001; National Association of Attorneys General, 2000).

   2005, Nancy E. Dowd, Dorothy G. Singer, Robin Fretwell Wilson, Handbook of Children, Culture, and Violence, page 333

   Granted, I'm not exactly grabbing an ax and going to town or pulling a “Columbine” but the idea of engaging in such activities has crossed my twisted little mind and plagued my black little heart in dreams only.

   2011, C.M. Dabbah, The House of Shades, page v

   I remember the second song that played was “Run to the Hills.” I thought my head was going to explode, thinking we were ten minutes away from a Columbine.

   2012, John Patton O'Dell, The Blue Wore Through: Collected Works of John Patton O'dell

   The suburbs are supposedly where nothing happens, like Auden said about what poetry doesn't do; an overinhabited faux terrain dozing in inertia, occasionally disrupted by “a Columbine” or “an Oklahoma City” or a hurricane to remind us what's really real.

   2014, Richard Ford, Let Me Be Frank With You: A Frank Bascombe Book