Meaning of Heliotrope | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A plant with flowers which turn to face and follow the sun, such as (archaic) marigolds and sunflowers.
   also, countable, figuratively
2. A plant of the genus Heliotropium, especially the common heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens) which has clusters of purple flowers with a strong fragrance.
   also, countable, figuratively, specifically, uncountable
3. With a qualifying word: any of various plants resembling those of the genus Heliotropium.
   also, countable, figuratively, uncountable
4. The fragrance of Heliotropium arborescens flowers, or a scent resembling this fragrance.
   uncountable
5. A light purple or violet colour like that of Heliotropium arborescens flowers.
   uncountable
6. An instrument that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight for purposes such as signalling, or (surveying) triangulation (where the reflected light is detected by another surveyor positioned some distance away).
   countable
7. An ancient type of sundial consisting of a bowl with a perpendicular gnomon mounted in the centre.
   countable, historical
8. Synonym of bloodstone (“a green chalcedony that is sprinkled with red spots or veins of hematite”).
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“In the Opale, there be obſerved alſo divers blemiſhes and imperfections as vvell as in other ſtones; namely, if the colour reſemble the floure of that hearbe vvhich is called Heliotropium, id eſt, Turneſole:[…]”

“Lac[o]. Theſe forked tricks, I vnderſtand 'hem not. / VVould he vvould tell vs vvhome he loues, or hates, / That vve might follovv, vvithout feare, or doubt. / Arr[untius]. Good Heliotrope! Is this your honeſt man? / Let him be yours ſo ſtill. He is my knaue.”

“AGRYPNIA, or Vigilance, […] her chaplet of Heliotropium, or turneſole; in her one hand a lampe, or creſſet, in her other a bell. The lampe ſignified ſearch and ſight, the bell vvarning. The Heliotropium care; and reſpecting her obiect.”

“Cordials. […] Flovvers of Heliotrope, […]”

“Flovvers in Prime, or yet laſting. […] Star-vvort, Heliotrop, French Mary-gold, […]”

“[S]till as on the night before, slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle; his hid, heliotrope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat due eastward for the earliest sun.”

“As they entered now, it seemed a blaze of roses and carnations, though one recognised in a moment the presence of the lily, the heliotrope, and the stock.”

“Here's newyearspray, the posquiflor, a windaborne and heliotrope; there miriamsweet and amaranth and marygold to crown.”

“He had lost his affable smile, and wore a look of almost military resolution; […] he had always smelt so much more of heliotrope than of gunpowder.”

“Ransacking the drawers of the dresser he came upon a discarded, tiny, ragged handkerchief. He pressed it to his face. It was racy and insolent with heliotrope; he hurled it to the floor.”

“Kit woke to see looming over him the face of Dr. Willi Dingkopf, framed by a haircut in violation of more than one law of physics, and a vivid necktie in fuchsia, heliotrope, and duck green, a gift from one of the patients, […]”

“The pretious ſtone Heliotropium, is found in Æthiopia, Affricke, and Cyprus: the ground thereof is a deepe greene in manner of a leeke, but the ſame is garniſhed vvith veins of bloud: the reaſon of the name Heliotropium is this, For that if it be throvvne into a paile of vvater, it chaungeth the raies of the Sun by vvay of reverberation into a bloudie colour, eſpecially that vvhich commeth out of Æthiopia: the ſame beeing vvithout the vvater, doth repreſent the bodie of the Sun, like unto a mirroir:[…]”

“Amid this dread exuberance of woe / Ran naked spirits wing'd with horrid fear, / Nor hope had they of crevice where to hide, / Or heliotrope to charm them out of view.”

CEFR level