snakehead

4 definitions found

snakehead - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Snakehead \Snake"head`\, n.
     1. A loose, bent-up end of one of the strap rails, or flat
        rails, formerly used on American railroads. It was
        sometimes so bent by the passage of a train as to slip
        over a wheel and pierce the bottom of a car.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Bot.)
        (a) The turtlehead.
        (b) The Guinea-hen flower. See Snake's-head, and under
            Guinea.
            [1913 Webster]

  Turtlehead \Tur"tle*head`\ (t[^u]r"t'l-h[e^]d`), n. (Bot.)
     An American perennial herb (Chelone glabra) having white
     flowers shaped like the head of a turtle. Called also
     snakehead, shell flower, and balmony.
     [1913 Webster]

  Chelone \Che*lo"ne\, n. [Gr. chelw`nh a tortoise. So named from
     shape of the upper lip of the corolla.] (Bot.)
     A genus of hardy perennial flowering plants, of the order
     Scrophulariace[ae], natives of North America; -- called
     also snakehead, turtlehead, shellflower, etc.
     [1913 Webster]

snakehead - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  snakehead
      n 1: showy perennial of marshlands of eastern and central North
           America having waxy lanceolate leaves and flower with lower
           part creamy white and upper parts pale pink to deep purple
           [syn: shellflower, shell-flower, turtlehead,
           snakehead, snake-head, Chelone glabra]