Dictionary

cocklebur en · NOUN

Etymology

From cockle + bur.

Meanings

1. Any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit.
   • Fig. 1.—Spiculated pollens of ragweeds (ambrosias) low in protein. […] In the cocklebur (Xanthium americanum) and the rough wild elder (Iva ciliata), the spicules are shorter, being 0.7 and 0.5 microns, and the reaction is proportionately less active than with the ragweeds (ambrosias). […] While the grass pollens have so light a coat that they are frequently crushed in the ordinary process of mounting, the ragweed (ambrosias) pollen grains resist pressure between two glass slides carried to the point of crushing the glass. 1916 September 16, W[illiam] Scheppegrell, “Direct and Indirect Hay-Fever: Preliminary Report of the Research Department of the American Hay-Fever-Prevention Association on the Etiology of Hay-Fever”, in George H[enry] Simmons, editor, The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume LXVII, number 12, Chicago, Ill.: American Medical Association, pages 862–863:
   • These burrs stuck to the tails of the cows as they walked by, and were brought to the cowpen, the cowtails greatly enlarged by the huge amount of cockleburs stuck on them. 2002, Lura Spears Zerick, The Golden Olden Days, page 69:

Forms

Deriveds

spiny cocklebur · Argentine cocklebur · rough cocklebur · smoothish cocklebur · common cocklebur · beach cocklebur

Synonyms

clotbur

Translations (22)

cmn 蒼耳 /苍耳 (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · it nappola (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · bg рогачица (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · fr lampourde (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · tr pıtrak (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · ca espina-xoca (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · sh číčak (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · sv gullfrö (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · cmn 葹 (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · sh repinac (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · sl bodìč (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · fi sappiruoho (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · pl rzepień (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · la xanthium (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · pt arzola (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · grc ξάνθιον (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · de Spitzklette (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · sk voškovník (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · sh dȉkica (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · fr xanthium (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · ru дурни́шник (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit) · cs řepeň (any of the coarse composite weeds of the genus Xanthium, with a prickly fruit)