poppy
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: PIE word
 *péh₂wr̥
The noun is derived from Late Middle English poppy, Middle English popy, popi, popie (“plant of the genus Papaver; poppy seeds used as a spice”) [and other forms], from Old English popiġ (“poppy”), Early Old English popeġ, popaeġ, popæġ, popei [and other forms], perhaps from Late Latin *papavum, popauer, from Latin papāver (“poppy”), which may be from a reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ (“bonfire”). Doublet of papaver.
Sense 3 (“artificial poppy flower to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts”) reflects the efforts of American professor and humanitarian Moina Michael (1869–1944) to popularize the wearing of artificial poppies in remembrance of those who fought and died in World War I; she was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields” (1915) by the Canadian poet and soldier John McCrae (1872–1918): see the quotation.
The adjective is derived from the noun.
Inflected forms:
form: poppies
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Any plant of the genus Papaver or the family Papaveraceae, with crumpled, often red, petals and a milky juice having narcotic properties; especially a common poppy or corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) which has orange-red flowers; the flower of such a plant.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, / That mark our place; […] / If ye break faith with us who die / We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields.
We cherish, too, the poppy red / That grows on fields where valor led; / It seems to signal to the skies / That blood of heroes never dies, / […] / And now the torch and poppy red / We wear in honor of our dead. / Fear not that ye have died for naught; / We've learned the lesson that ye taught / In Flanders fields.
gloss: A bright red colour tinted with orange, like that of the common poppy flower.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A simple artificial poppy flower worn in a buttonhole or displayed in other contexts to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts, especially around Remembrance Day/Remembrance Sunday.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
Canada
UK
countable
uncountable
examples: Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.
gloss: Of a bright red colour tinted with orange, like that of the common poppy flower (Papaver rhoeas).
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
Related words: creamcups
eschscholzia
opium
swallow-wort
Derived words: alpine poppy
arctic poppy
antipoppy
bear-paw poppy
bear poppy
blue poppy
breadseed poppy
bristly Matilija poppy
bush poppy
California poppy
celandine poppy
common poppy
corn poppy
Coulter's Matilija poppy
cut down the tall poppy
dawn poppy
field poppy
flaming poppy
Flanders poppy
garden poppy
golden poppy
green poppy
Himalayan blue poppy
horn poppy
horned poppy
Iceland poppy
matilija poppy
Matilija poppy
Mexican poppy
opium poppy
Oriental poppy
plume poppy
poppied
poppy bee
Poppy Day
poppy head
poppyhead
poppylike
poppy mallow
poppy milk
poppy red
poppyseed
poppy seed
poppy seed test
poppy straw
poppy tears
poppywort
prickly poppy
red poppy
sea poppy
Shirley poppy
snow poppy
spatling poppy
Svalbard poppy
tall poppy
tall poppy syndrome
thistle poppy
thorn poppy
Tibetan poppy
tree poppy
tulip poppy
water poppy
Welsh poppy
western poppy
white poppy
wind poppy
wood poppy
yellow poppy
Translations: