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Meaning of Wormwood | Babel Free

Noun CEFR B2
ˈwə(ɹ)m.wʊd

Definitions

  1. A star or angel that appears in the Book of Revelation, turning waters bitter and poisonous.
  2. An intensely bitter herb (Artemisia absinthium and similar plants in genus Artemisia) used in medicine, in the production of absinthe and vermouth, and as a tonic.
  3. A surname.
  4. Something that causes bitterness or affliction; a cause of mortification or vexation.

Equivalents

Azərbaycanca yovşan
Български оби́да пелин
Català donzell
Esperanto absinto
فارسی درمنه
Français absinthe amertume armoise fiel
Gaeilge mormónta
עברית לענה
Magyar fehér üröm
Italiano assenzio
日本語 苦蓬
한국어 쓴쑥 향쑥
Kurdî Malî malî
Македонски горчина пе́лин
Nederlands absintalsem
Polski piołun
Português absinto amargura
Română pelin
Slovenčina palina
Svenska malört
Tagalog ahenho
Türkçe pelin
Tiếng Việt ngải cứu

Examples

“But as I said, / When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple / Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, / To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!”
“Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.”
“Blue skippers in sunny hours ope and shut Where wormwood and grunsel flowers by the cart ruts […]”
“Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wine And one with wormwood.”
“Amongst the herbs to be administered when the charm was sung over him were a yew-berry, lupin, helenium, marsh mallow, dock, elder, wormwood and strawberry leaves.”
“Tradition credits John the Baptist with wearing a girdle fashioned of wormwood, while he was in the wilderness.”
“The irony of this reply was wormwood to Zeluco; he fell into a gloomy fit of musing, and made no farther inquiry […].”
“Yet I think the Archdeacon, a "new man," to whom the aristocratic Canon's popularity was wormwood, did dislike him.”
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”
“Having got the address from the school records, Miss Honey set out to walk from her own home to the Wormwoods’ house shortly after nine.”

CEFR level

B2
Upper Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.
See all B2 English words →

See also

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