1.
[syn: cinnamon fern, fiddlehead, fiddlehead fern, Osmunda cinnamonea]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
fiddlehead \fid"dle*head`\ n.
1. any of several tall ferns of northern temperate regions
having graceful arched fronds and sporophylls resembling
ostrich plumes.
Syn: ostrich fern, shuttlecock fern, Matteuccia
struthiopteris, Pteretis struthiopteris, Onoclea
struthiopteris.
[WordNet 1.5]
2. New World fern (Osmunda cinnamonea) having woolly
cinnamon-colored spore-bearing fronds in early spring
later surrounded by green fronds, called also fiddlehead
fern; the early uncurling fronds are edible, and
sometimes considered as a vegetable delicacy.
Syn: cinnamon fern, fiddlehead fern, Osmunda cinnamonea.
[WordNet 1.5]
3. (Naut.) an ornament on a ship's bow, curved like the
volute or scroll at the head of a violin. Sometimes it
serves the function of a billhead.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
fiddlehead fern
n 1: New World fern having woolly cinnamon-colored spore-bearing
fronds in early spring later surrounded by green fronds;
the early uncurling fronds are edible [syn: cinnamon
fern, fiddlehead, fiddlehead fern, Osmunda
cinnamonea]