crane's-bill, cranesbill
(ˈkreɪnzbɪl)
[crane n.1 1 + bill. A translation by the 16th c. herbalists of Du. craenhals, Ger. kranichhals, MLG. kraneshals, names of Geranium dissectum.]
1. Bot. A name for the various species (esp. the native British species) of the genus Geranium; so called from the long slender beak of the fruit.
By the 16th c. herbalists applied originally to only one species, apparently G. dissectum.
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes D iij, Geranium is of two kyndes. The one kynde is called Pinke nedle or Cranes byl, the other is called Pes columbinus of the commune Herbaries, and it may be called in englishe Douefote. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccclviii. 940 The roots of this Cranes bill have a little kinde of heat in them. 1693 Sir T. P. Blount Nat. Hist. 8 One kind of Cranes-Bill, call'd Geranium Moschatum..smells just like Musk. 1756 Sir J. Hill Herbal 196 The cranesbills are characterised..by their singular fruit. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 99 Carpets of flowers, primroses, orchises, cowslips, ground-ivy, crane's bill, cotton-grass. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton. xx. (D.) Is there any blue half so pure, and deep, and tender, as that of the large crane's-bill, the Geranium pratense of the botanists? |
2. Surg. A kind of forceps with long jaws.
| 1668 R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 28 Came the Surgeons, laden with Pincers, Crane-bills, Catheters. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Crane's-bill, a kind of forceps used by surgeons, and so named from its figure. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Crane's-bill, a pair of long-nosed pinchers. |