cernuous

English

Lily of the valley has cernuous flowers

Etymology

Latin cernuus (“with the face turned toward the earth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɜː(ɹ)nju.əs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

cernuous (not comparable)

1. (botany) Inclining or nodding downward; pendulous; drooping; said of a bud, flower, or fruit, or the capsule of a moss.
   • 2005, Zadie Smith, On Beauty, Penguin Books (2006), page 80:

     Walking up Redwood Avenue with its tunnel of cernuous willows.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “cernuous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• coenurus