daffodil

plural daffodils · alternative obsolete affodill · alternative obsolete daffadil

1. countableA bulbous plant of the genus Narcissus, with yellow flowers and a trumpet shaped corona, especially Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the national flower of Wales.

   As us fairy folk sweep from the hill Never caught us and never will Pulling roses and daffodils Mayhem in the high degree.

   1988, “Mayhem Maybe”, in Ian Anderson (music), 20 Years of Jethro Tull, performed by Jethro Tull

   3 more examples

   When daffadils begin to peere, / With heigh the Doxy ouer the dale, / Why then comes in the ſweet o’ the yeere, / For the red blood raigns in yͤ winters pale.

   c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 290, column 1

   I wandered lonely as a Cloud / That floats on high o’er Vales and Hills, / When all at once I saw a crowd / A host of dancing Daffodills; / Along the Lake, beneath the trees, / Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.

   1807, William Wordsworth, “[I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud]”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 49

   Was there ever a more beautiful name in the world than daffodil? Say it over to yourself, and then say “agapanthus” or “chrysanthemum,” or anything else you please, and tell me if the daffodils do not have it.

   1919 November 20, A[lan] A[lexander] Milne, “Daffodils”, in Not That It Matters, New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Company […], published 1920, →OCLC, page 82

2. countableuncountableA brilliant yellow color, like that of a daffodil.

   Where ships of purple gently toss / On seas of daffodil, / Fantastic sailors mingle, / And then—the wharf is still.

   a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “Where Ships of purple gently toss”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, Second Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1891, page 11

comparative more daffodil · superlative most daffodil · alternative obsolete affodill · alternative obsolete daffadil

1. Of a brilliant yellow color, like that of a daffodil.

1. rareA female given name from English.

   "Pansy would be his wife," Delia guessed. "Yes, and the baby's name is Daffodil, can you believe it?" "There's a baby?" "And it wasn't even a springtime baby! It was born in October!"

   1995, Anne Tyler, Ladder of Years, Knopf, →ISBN, page 148