daisy

plural daisies · alternative daisie · alternative daysie

1. A wild flowering plant of species Bellis perennis of the family Asteraceae, with a yellow head and white petals
2. Any of numerous other flowering plants of various species, mostly among the asterids.
3. CockneyslangA boot or other footwear.
4. colloquialSomething splendid; a doozy.

   Then Dan drew the sheath-knife and tested the edge of it on the gunwale. "That's a daisy," said Harvey. "How did you get it so cheap?"

   1896 November – 1897 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Captains Courageous”, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, published 1897, →OCLC

1. A female given name from English.

   Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do! / I'm half crazy all for the love of you!

   1892, Harry Dacre, “Daisy Bell”

   3 more examples

   Mrs. Fairfax kept always an eye upon him, and in spite of his familiarity with her, so restrained him in his intercourse with Margaret, that he could not for his life call her Daisy any more, though he had done so on the first day of their acquaintance.

   1867, Alice Cary, The Bishop's Son, G. W. Carleton&Co, published 1867, page 31

   She was a timid, sensitive girl, looking like her name - Daisy-ish industrious and thorough in her studies; - - -

   1929, Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, Modern Library, published 1957, page 45

   "Isn't she a Christian or something - a name which is..." "Nothing more than the name of a flower, that's all. Daisy is a flower." He realized he was not sure what flower it was. "It's a most lovely flower grown in America, England, and so forth. What is wrong with that name?"

   1976, R. K. Narayan, The Painter of Signs, Penguin Classics, published 1982, →ISBN, page 115

2. A common name for a cow.

   The heifer Daisy died in September 1811.

   1875, E. L. Sturtevant, J. N. Sturtevant, The Dairy Cow: A Monograph on the Ayrshire Breed of Cattle, A. Williams and company, page 160

plural Daisies

1. A Girl Scout at the initial introductory level.

plural Daisys

1. A surname.

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