asphodel

plural asphodels

1. uncountableusuallyAny of the flowering plants of the family Asphodelaceae, especially Asphodelus ramosus and Asphodelus albus; the flower of these plants.

   Sometimes I lost track of them and had to hunt round in a circle, thrusting through sharp-scented bushes, scratching myself on various plants which were still new to me: resinaceous rock-roses, juniper, ilex, yellow and white asphodel [translating asphodèles].

   1962, Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Peter Green, The Prime of Life, Cleveland, OH: The World Publishing Company, translation of La Force de l'âge, →OCLC, page 77

2. Greekuncountableusuallyhuman sciencesThe flower said to carpet Hades, and a favorite food of the dead.

   Her hand he seis'd, and to a shadie bank, Thick overhead with verdant roof imbowr'd He led her nothing loath; Flours were the Couch, Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel, And Hyacinth, Earths freshest softest lap.

   1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

1. A former township in Peterborough County, Ontario, Canada, merged into Asphodel-Norwood township in 1998.