Mary-bud

English

Alternative forms

Mary bud

Noun

Mary-bud (plural Mary-buds)

1. (obsolete) A marigold or its blossom.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], lines 23-26:

     And winking Mary-buds begin / To ope their golden eyes: / With every thing that pretty is, / My lady sweet, arise.

   • 1899, Bernard Capes, At a Winter's Fire:

     The garden lay below me, and the dewy meadows beyond. In the one, bees were busy ruffling the ruddy gillyflowers and April stocks; in the other, the hedge twigs were all frosted with Mary buds, as if Spring had brushed them with the fleece of her wings in passing.

References

• “Mary-bud”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.