See Also: Pork chop in a mustard and herb crust with herb salad(recipes)
Herb(medicine)
herb(dictionary)
herb(dictionary)
Buttermilk Herb Dip(recipes)
Herb Biscuits(recipes)
willow herb(encyclopedia)
spice and herb(encyclopedia)
willow-herb(medicine)
herb-woman(medicine)

herb (iou)



herb noun. ME.
[Old French erbe (mod. herbe) from Latin herba grass, green crops, herb. The spelling with h is recorded from the earliest times, but a pronunc. without initial aspirate was regular till E19.]
A plant whose stem does not become woody and persistent (as in a shrub or tree) but remains soft and succulent, and dies (completely or down to the root) after flowering. ME.
A (freq. aromatic) plant used for flavouring or scent, in medicine, etc. ME.
R. Ingalls She sprinkled some herbs and salt on the top.
collect. Herbage. In later use poet. LME.
W. Owen Soon they topped the hill, and raced..Over an open stretch of herb and heather.
The leafy part of a (herbaceous) plant, esp. as distinct from the root. M17-L18.
Comb. & phrases: herb beer a drink made from herbs; herb bennet: see BENNET noun1; herb Christopher [translating medieval Latin herba Christophori herb of St Christopher, early martyr] (a) a baneberry, esp. a common Eurasian baneberry, Actaea spicata; (b) royal fern, Osmunda regalis; herb-doctor (chiefly N. Amer.) a doctor who treats diseases with herbs instead of conventional remedies; herb Gerard [named after St Gerard of Toul (c 935-94), formerly invoked against gout] the plant ground elder, Aegopodium podagraria; herb-grace: see herb of grace below; herb mastic: see MASTIC noun 3; herb of grace, herb-grace (now arch. & dial.) [app. after the formal coincidence of the name rue with RUE verb, noun1 repent, repentance] the herb rue, Ruta graveolens; gen. any herb of valuable properties; herb Paris [translation of medieval Latin herba paris, prob. lit. 'herb of a pair', from the resemblance of the four leaves to a true-lover's knot] a woodland plant, Paris quadrifolia (of the lily family), bearing a single greenish flower at the top of the stem, and just beneath it four large ovate leaves in the form of a cross; herb Robert [translation of medieval Latin herba Roberti: variously referred to Robert Duke of Normandy, to St Robert, and to St Rupert] a wild cranesbill common in hedges, Geranium robertianum, with bright pink flowers, reddish stems, and finely cut leaves; herb tea an infusion of herbs; herb tobacco a mixture of herbs smoked as a substitute for tobacco; herb Trinity arch. the hepatica, Hepatica nobilis, so called from its three-lobed leaves; herb TWOPENCE; herb water = herb tea above.