oil of wintergreen
3 definitions found
oil of wintergreen - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Wintergreen \Win"ter*green`\, n. (Bot.)
A plant which keeps its leaves green through the winter.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In England, the name wintergreen is applied to the
species of Pyrola which in America are called
English wintergreen, and shin leaf (see Shin leaf,
under Shin.) In America, the name wintergreen is
given to Gaultheria procumbens, a low evergreen
aromatic plant with oval leaves clustered at the top of
a short stem, and bearing small white flowers followed
by red berries; -- called also checkerberry, and
sometimes, though improperly, partridge berry.
[1913 Webster]
Chickweed wintergreen, a low perennial primulaceous herb
(Trientalis Americana); -- also called star flower.
Flowering wintergreen, a low plant (Polygala paucifolia)
with leaves somewhat like those of the wintergreen
(Gaultheria), and bearing a few showy, rose-purple
blossoms.
oil of wintergreen, An aromatic oil, consisting almost
entirely of methyl salicylate (CH3CO.O.C6H4.OH),
obtained by distillation of an extract of the wintergreen
(Gaultheria procumbens); it can also be obtained from
some other plants. It is used as a flavoring agent for
tooth powders and pastes, sometimes combined with menthol
or eucalyptus. It is called also oil of teaberry, oil of partridgeberry
, and oil of gaultheria.
Spotted wintergreen, a low evergreen plant (Chimaphila maculata
) with ovate, white-spotted leaves.
[1913 Webster + PJC]
Essential \Es*sen"tial\ ([e^]s*s[e^]n"sjal), a. [Cf. F.
essentiel. See Essence.]
1. Belonging to the essence, or that which makes an object,
or class of objects, what it is.
[1913 Webster]
Majestic as the voice sometimes became, there was
forever in it an essential character of
plaintiveness. --Hawthorne.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence, really existing; existent.
[1913 Webster]
Is it true, that thou art but a name,
And no essential thing? --Webster
(1623).
[1913 Webster]
3. Important in the highest degree; indispensable to the
attainment of an object; indispensably necessary.
[1913 Webster]
Judgment's more essential to a general
Than courage. --Denham.
[1913 Webster]
How to live? -- that is the essential question for
us. --H. Spencer.
[1913 Webster]
4. Containing the essence or characteristic portion of a
substance, as of a plant; highly rectified; pure; hence,
unmixed; as, an essential oil. "Mine own essential
horror." --Ford.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Mus.) Necessary; indispensable; -- said of those tones
which constitute a chord, in distinction from ornamental
or passing tones.
[1913 Webster]
6. (Med.) Idiopathic; independent of other diseases.
[1913 Webster]
Essential character (Biol.), the prominent characteristics
which serve to distinguish one genus, species, etc., from
another.
Essential disease, Essential fever (Med.), one that is
not dependent on another.
Essential oils (Chem.), a class of volatile oils, extracted
from plants, fruits, or flowers, having each its
characteristic odor, and hot burning taste. They are used
in essences, perfumery, etc., and include many varieties
of compounds; as lemon oil is a terpene, oil of bitter almonds
an aldehyde, oil of wintergreen an ethereal
salt, etc.; -- called also volatile oils in distinction
from the fixed or nonvolatile.
[1913 Webster]
oil of wintergreen - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :
oil of wintergreen
n 1: oil or flavoring obtained from the creeping wintergreen or
teaberry plant [syn: wintergreen oil, oil of wintergreen
]
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