tormentil

plural tormentils

1. countableuncountableA low-growing herb (Potentilla erecta, syn. Potentilla tormentilla).

   1615, Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, London: William Jaggard, “A Dilucidation or Exposition of the Controuersies concerning the Historie of the Infant,” Question 31, p. 340, […] the hearbe Tormentill which hath seauen leaues resisteth all poysons.

   3 more examples

   Instead of tea, they drink an infusion of the roots of the tormentil (Tormentilla erecta), which, when boiled, dyes the water reddish, gives it a very astringent taste, and is drank without milk.

   1788, S. Pallas, “Travels through Siberia and Tartary”, in John Trusler, editor, The Habitable World Described, volume 3, London, Part 2, p. 233

   The bracken, waist-high at first, was like small hoops at the top of the wood, where the tiny golden tormentil made a carpet and the yellow pimpernel was closing her eager eyes.

   1917, Mary Webb, chapter 25, in Gone to Earth, New York: Dutton, page 206

   The flowers were sparser. Here and there a yellow tormentil showed in the grass, a late harebell or a few shreds of purple bloom on a brown, crisping tuft of self-heal.

   1972, Richard Adams, chapter 50, in Watership Down, London: Macmillan

   Synonyms: shepherd's knot