▪ I. cyme1
(saɪm)
Also 8 cime.
[a. F. cime, cyme, in the sense ‘top, summit’ (12th c. in Hatzf.):—pop. L. cima = L. cyma (see above); in the Bot. sense an 18th c. adaptation of the ancient L.]
† 1. (cime.) A ‘head’ (of unexpanded leaves, etc.). Obs. rare.
| 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Sallet, The Buds and tender Cime of Nettles by some eaten raw, by others boiled. |
2. Bot. (cyme.) A species of inflorescence wherein the primary axis bears a single terminal flower which develops first, the system being continued by axes of secondary and higher orders which develop successively in like manner; a centrifugal or definite inflorescence: opposed to raceme. Applied esp. to compound inflorescences of this type forming a more or less flat head.
| 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. v. 55 The arrangement of the flowers in the elder is called a cyme. 1854 S. Thomson Wild Fl. iii. (ed. 4) 250 The meadow-sweet, with its crowded cymes. |
3. Arch. = cyma.
| 1877 Blackmore Erema III. xlvii. 106 This is what we call a cyme-joint, a cohesion of two curved surfaces. |
▪ II. cyme2
(Shakes. Macb. v. iii. 55, 1st Folio), supposed to be an error for cynne, senna.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. v. iii. 55 What Rubarb, Cyme, or what Purgatiue drugge Would scowre these English hence. |