pissabed
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom piss + bed or piss + abed, so called after the dandelion's supposed diuretic effect. Compare French pissenlit.
Noun
editpissabed (plural pissabeds)
- The dandelion, formerly much used for its diuretic properties. [from 16th c.]
- 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:
- Of flowers there was no trace, save of the flowers that plant themselves, or never die […] The chief of these was the pissabed.
- 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 139:
- The tufted hillock […] had no buildings on and only golden clumps of piss-the-bed that were not yet gone into misty balls of seed.
- (dialect) Any of various other wild plants with diuretic properties; bluet, oxeye daisy, etc.