Adjacent Words

Saffron definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SAF'FRON, n. [The radical sense is to fail, or to be hollow, or to be exhausted.
1. A plant of the genus Crocus. The bastard saffron is of the genus Carthamus, and the meadow saffron of the genus Colchicum.
2. In the materia medica, saffron is formed of the stigmata of the Crocus officinalis, dried on a kiln and pressed into cakes.
SAF'FRON, a. Having the color of saffron flowers; yellow; as a saffron face; a saffron streamer.
SAF'FRON, v.t. To tinge with saffron; to make yellow; to gild.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: Old World crocus having purple or white flowers with aromatic pungent orange stigmas used in flavoring food [syn: saffron, saffron crocus, Crocus sativus]
2: dried pungent stigmas of the Old World saffron crocus
3: a shade of yellow tinged with orange [syn: orange yellow, saffron]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French saffron, safren, from Medieval Latin safranum, from Arabic za‘far?n Date: 13th century 1. a. the deep orange aromatic pungent dried stigmas of a purple-flowered crocus (Crocus sativus) used to color and flavor foods and formerly as a dyestuff and in medicine b. the crocus supplying saffron 2. a moderate orange to orange yellow

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & adj. --n. 1 an orange flavouring and food colouring made from the dried stigmas of the crocus, Crocus sativus. 2 the colour of this. 3 = meadow saffron. --adj. saffron-coloured. Derivatives: saffrony adj. Etymology: ME f. OF safran f. Arab. za' faran

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Saffron Saf"fron (?; 277), a. Having the color of the stigmas of saffron flowers; deep orange-yellow; as, a saffron face; a saffron streamer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Saffron Saf"fron (?; 277), n. [OE. saffran, F. safran; cf. It. zafferano, Sp. azafran, Pg. a[,c]afr[~a]o; all fr. Ar. & Per. za' far[=a]n.] 1. (Bot.) A bulbous iridaceous plant (Crocus sativus) having blue flowers with large yellow stigmas. See Crocus. 2. The aromatic, pungent, dried stigmas, usually with part of the stile, of the Crocus sativus. Saffron is used in cookery, and in coloring confectionery, liquors, varnishes, etc., and was formerly much used in medicine. 3. An orange or deep yellow color, like that of the stigmas of the Crocus sativus. Bastard saffron, Dyer's saffron. (Bot.) See Safflower. Meadow saffron (Bot.), a bulbous plant (Colchichum autumnale) of Europe, resembling saffron. Saffron wood (Bot.), the yellowish wood of a South African tree (El[ae]odendron croceum); also, the tree itself. Saffron yellow, a shade of yellow like that obtained from the stigmas of the true saffron (Crocus sativus).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Saffron Saf"fron, v. t. To give color and flavor to, as by means of saffron; to spice. [Obs.] And in Latyn I speak a wordes few, To saffron with my predication. --Chaucer.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Saffron is a yellowish-orange powder obtained from a flower and used to give flavour and colouring to some foods. ...saffron rice. 2. Saffron is a yellowish-orange colour. ...a Buddhist in saffron robes. COLOUR

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Heb. karkom, Arab. zafran (i.e., "yellow"), mentioned only in Cant. 4:13, 14; the Crocus sativus. Many species of the crocus are found in Palestine. The pistils and stigmata, from the centre of its flowers, are pressed into "saffron cakes," common in the East. "We found," says Tristram, "saffron a very useful condiment in travelling cookery, a very small pinch of it giving not only a rich yellow colour but an agreable flavour to a dish of rice or to an insipid stew."

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

saf'-run (karkom; krokos): Identical with the Arabic kurqum, the same as za`faran, "saffron." The source of the true saffron is Crocus sativus (Natural Order, Indaceae), a plant cultivated in Palestine; there are 8 wild varieties in all of which, as in the cultivated species, the orange-colored styles and stigmas yield the yellow dye, saffron. So 4:14 probably refers to the C. sativus. There is a kind of bastard saffron plant, the Carthamus tinctorius (Natural Order, Compositae), of which the orange-colored flowers yield a dye like saffron.

E. W. G. Masterman

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. Yellow. II. v. a. Gild, make yellow.