spurge

spurge  (spûrj)

n.

Any of various plants of the genus Euphorbia, characteristically having milky juice and small unisexual flowers that are surrounded by a cuplike structure composed of fused bracts.

---

[Middle English, from Old French espurge, from espurgier, to purge (from its use as a purgative), from Latin exprgre; see expurgate.]

---

spurge

Noun

a plant with milky sap and small flowers [Latin expurgare to cleanse]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

spurge - any of numerous plants of the genus Euphorbia; usually having milky often poisonous juice Euphorbia, genus Euphorbia - type genus of the Euphorbiaceae: very large genus of diverse plants all having milky juice caper spurge, Euphorbia lathyris, myrtle spurge, mole plant - poisonous Old World spurge; adventive in America; seeds yield a purgative oil Euphorbia helioscopia, sun spurge, wartweed, wartwort, devil's milk - not unattractive European weed whose flowers turn toward the sun devil's milk, Euphorbia peplus, petty spurge - an Old World spurge introduced as a weed in the eastern United States Euphorbia caput-medusae, Euphorbia medusae, medusa's head - African dwarf succulent perennial shrub with numerous slender drooping branches Euphorbia corollata, flowering spurge, tramp's spurge, wild spurge - common perennial United States spurge having showy white petallike bracts Euphorbia marginata, ghost weed, snow-in-summer, snow-on-the-mountain - annual spurge of western United States having showy white-bracted flower clusters and very poisonous milk cypress spurge, Euphorbia cyparissias - Old World perennial having foliage resembling cypress; naturalized as a weed in the United States Euphorbia esula, leafy spurge, wolf's milk - tall European perennial naturalized and troublesome as a weed in eastern North America Euphorbia hirsuta, hairy spurge - much-branched hirsute weed native to northeastern North America Christmas flower, Christmas star, Euphorbia pulcherrima, lobster plant, Mexican flameleaf, poinsettia, painted leaf - tropical American plant having poisonous milk and showy tapering usually scarlet petallike leaves surrounding small yellow flowers Euphorbia heterophylla, Japanese poinsettia, mole plant, paint leaf - showy poinsettia found from the southern United States to Peru Euphorbia cyathophora, fire-on-the-mountain, Mexican fire plant, painted leaf - poinsettia of United States and eastern Mexico; often confused with Euphorbia heterophylla Euphorbia amygdaloides, wood spurge - European perennial herb with greenish yellow terminal flower clusters Euphorbia antisyphilitica, candelilla - wax-coated shrub of northern Mexico and southwestern United States dwarf spurge, Euphorbia exigua - European erect or depressed annual weedy spurge adventive in northeastern United States Euphorbia fulgens, scarlet plume - Mexican shrub often cultivated for its scarlet-bracted flowers cactus euphorbia, Euphorbia ingens, naboom - small tree of dry open parts of southern Africa having erect angled branches suggesting candelabra Christ plant, Christ thorn, Euphorbia milii, crown of thorns - somewhat climbing bushy spurge of Madagascar having long woody spiny stems with few leaves and flowers with scarlet bracts Euphorbia dentata, toothed spurge - an annual weed of northeastern North America with dentate leaves bush, shrub - a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems