passionflower

plural passionflowers · alternative Passionflower · alternative passion flower · alternative Passion flower · alternative passion-flower

1. Any of very many vines, in North America and elsewhere, of the genus Passiflora that bear edible fruit called passion fruit, and showy flowers of a structure symbolic of the Passion of Christ.

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   The Priests observed frequent fasts, and abstained at all times from certain animals and fruits, especially from the Granadilla, the fruit of the Passion-flower, because, say the lying Jesuits, of the mysteries which are signified in that marvellous blossom: the people also were frequently required to fast.

   1819, Robert Southey, chapter XXXIV, in History of Brazil, 3rd part, London: […] [William Pople] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, page 185

2. The flower of this plant.

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   “One of the windows is open, and through it I can see a woman seated at a table. Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress. She is embroidering passion-flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen’s maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball.”

   1888, Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: Duckworth, published 1928, page 21

plural Passionflowers

1. Alternative letter-case form of passionflower.