mallow

plural mallows

1. countableuncountableAny of a group of flowering plants in several genera of the taxonomic family Malvaceae, especially of the genus Malva. Several species are edible by humans.

   1840, Robert Browning, Sordello, Book IV, in Sordello; Strafford; Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1863, p. 112, The thoroughfares were overrun with weed — Docks, quitchgrass, loathly mallows no man plants.

   5 more examples

   Gonzalo. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,— Antonio. He’ld sow’t with nettle-seed. Sebastian. Or docks, or mallows.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 30:3-4

   Not Heathpout, or the rarer Bird, / Which Phasis, or Ionia yields, / More pleasing Morsels would afford / Than the fat Olives of my Fields; / Than Shards or Mallows for the Pot, / That keep the loosen’d Body sound, / Or than the Lamb that falls by Lot, / To the just Guardian of my Ground.

   1684, John Dryden, “From Horace, Epode 2”, in The Second Part of Miscellany Poems, 4th edition, London: Jacob Tonson, page 79

   The Time Traveller paused, put his hand into his pocket, and silently placed two withered flowers, not unlike very large white mallows, upon the little table. Then he resumed his narrative.

   1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 7, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC

   'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

2. countableuncountableLarentia clavaria, an uncommon moth found across Eurasia.

plural Mallows

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableA town in County Cork, Ireland (Irish grid ref W 5598).
3. countableuncountableA locality in the County of Newell, Alberta, Canada.
4. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Alleghany County, Virginia, United States.