Dictionary

pissabed en · NOUN

Etymology

From piss + bed or piss + abed, so called after the dandelion's supposed diuretic effect. Compare French pissenlit.

Meanings

1. Any dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), formerly much used for its diuretic properties.
   • Of flowers there was no trace, save of the flowers that plant themselves, or never die […] The chief of these was the pissabed. 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
   • The tufted hillock […] had no buildings on and only golden clumps of piss-the-bed that were not yet gone into misty balls of seed. 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 139:
2. (dialectal) Any of various other wild plants with diuretic properties; bluet, oxeye daisy, etc.
3. (archaic, slang) A bedwetter.

Forms

Relateds

bedwetting