Link Centre Dictionary

chickweed

chick·weed

UK/ˈtʃɪkwiːd/ uncommon

noun

1.

any of various plants of the genus Stellaria

Origin

From Middle English chykwed, chykewode, chike wed, chikewed, chekwede, a variant of chykynwede, chekyn-wede, cheken-wede (literally “chicken-weed”), equivalent to chick + weed. Etymonline claims the name was apparently applied to many plants fit for chicken feed, which were called in Old English cicene mete (“chicken food”).

Phrases

  • chickweed wintergreen
  • mouse-eared chickweed
  • red chickweed
  • sea chickweed

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.