ˈragweed
[Cf. ragwort.]
1. = ragwort1 1.
| 1658 Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus iii. 48 Accounting upward is often observable in furre, pillitorry, Ragweed, [etc.]. 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece iii. 222 The Leaves are..something like ragweed. 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. xiii. (ed. 2) 113 The yellow rag-weed, by which light land, when laid out in grass, is very much infested. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 387 Clearing his land of charlock, rag-weed,..&c. 1881 Blackie Lay Serm. v. 162 A grand growth of rushes, dock, and rag-weed. |
| attrib. 1785 Burns Addr. to Deil ix, Wither'd hags,..on ragweed nags, They skim the muirs. |
2. U.S. A plant belonging to the genus
Ambrosia,
esp. A. trifida and
A. artemisiæfolia.
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 956/2 Ragweed, Ambrosia trifida. 1883 Century Mag. Aug. 487/2 Buck-wheat, the seeds of grasses, and the rag-weed. |
| attrib. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIII. 397/1 All around this rag-weed patch their innumerable little footprints run. |