trailing arbutus
NounWordNet 3.0
Noun (1)
- low-growing evergreen shrub of eastern North America with leathery leaves and clusters of fragrant pink or white flowersSynonyms: trailing arbutusmayflowerEpigaea repens
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
Trailing arbutus. (Bot.) See under Arbutus.
Trailing spring, a spring fixed in the axle box of the trailing wheels of a locomotive engine, and so placed as to assist in deadening any shock which may occur. --Weale.
Trailing wheel, a hind wheel of a locomotive when it is not a driving wheel; also, one of the hind wheels of a carriage. [1913 Webster]
Arbutus \Ar"bu*tus\, Arbute \Ar"bute\, n. [L. arbutus, akin to arbor tree.] The strawberry tree, a genus of evergreen shrubs, of the Heath family. It has a berry externally resembling the strawberry; the arbute tree. [1913 Webster]
Trailing arbutus (Bot.), a creeping or trailing plant of the Heath family (Epig[ae]a repens), having white or usually rose-colored flowers with a delicate fragrance, growing in small axillary clusters, and appearing early in the spring; in New England known as mayflower; -- called also ground laurel. --Gray. [1913 Webster]