cuckoo-bud
A name of some plant.
Shakespeare has been variously supposed to refer to the buttercup, marsh-marigold, and cowslip; Clare perhaps meant an Orchis, or the Cuckoo-pint in bud.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 906 When Dasies pied, and Violets blew, And Cuckow-buds of yellow hew: And Ladie-smockes all siluer white, Do paint the Medowes with delight. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 137 'Neath the weaving thorn, Where the pouch'd-lipp'd cuckoo-bud From its snug retreat was torn. Ibid. II. 133 Full many a blue-bell flower and cuckoo-bud. |