flower

Less common meanings

7. 7
   develop fullyverbintransitive

   To reach a state of full growth, success, or achievement.

   Under her mentorship, his confidence flowered into real leadership.

   Great ideas flower when curious minds work together.

   UsageOften flower into something: confidence that flowered into leadership.

   Similarblossom, bloom, flourish, develop, mature

   Oppositewither

   Note

   The figurative verb tends to bring its garden along. In Mahadev Desai's translation of Gandhi's Autobiography, an idea needs only watering 'to take root, to flower and to fructify'. Edmund Spenser in 1579 writes 'when flowrd my ioyfull spring'. The noun flowering carries the same idea of full development, as in a creative or personal flowering. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Mahadev Desai translated Gandhi's Autobiography. scalar.lehigh.edu
   • The translation contains the quoted botanical metaphor for personal development. scalar.lehigh.edu
   • Edmund Spenser wrote the work containing the cited line. en.wikipedia.org
   • The work containing the line was first published in 1579. en.wikisource.org
   • The line reads 'Whilome in youth, when flowrd my ioyfull spring,' in 'December' of The Shepheardes Calender. The speaker is Colin; 'youthful' should be 'ioyfull' (joyful). en.wikisource.org
8. 8
   creditnounfigurativelycountable or uncountableplural

   Due credit or public recognition for a person's contributions or worth.

   Critics did not give the director his flowers until years after the film had flopped.

   In her speech, she gave her longtime coach his flowers, crediting him with every title she had won.

   UsageUsually give someone their flowers or get your flowers.

   Similardue, credit, recognition, props

   Note

   In Tommy Hicks's Game of My Life, a book of Alabama football memories, one man is thankful he gave Coach Bryant his flowers 'while he was alive'. The idiom often stresses recognition delivered in time, while the person can still enjoy it. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Tommy Hicks wrote Game of My Life Alabama Crimson Tide, a book of Alabama football memories. newsouthbooks.com.au
   • The book contains a man's statement expressing thankfulness that he gave Coach Bryant his flowers 'while he was alive'. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   delicate personnouncountable or uncountable

   A person regarded as delicate, fragile, or overly sensitive.

   Don't treat me like some delicate flower; I can handle honest feedback on my work.

   She's no delicate flower, and she handled the harsh criticism with ease.

   UsageMostly in delicate flower or sensitive flower, usually teasing or ironic.

   Similarweakling, wimp, softy

   Note

   Without the irony it turns tender, as in a mother's 'precious flower' to her child. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • The affectionate address 'precious flower' is attested in a mother's words to her child. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    verbtransitive

    To decorate something with painted or printed pictures of flowers.

    The guest room still had its original wallpaper, faded but flowered with climbing violets.

    The cafe's old cups were flowered with tiny hand-painted poppies, and no two were exactly alike.

    Similardecorate, adorn

11. 11
    vulvanouncolloquialeuphemisticcountable or uncountable

    A euphemistic term for the vulva, especially the labia majora.

    The erotic verses lingered over her flower with deliberate delicacy.

    The old drinking song never names her body outright, but everyone laughs at the line about her 'sweet flower.'

    Note

    A familiar, coy euphemism, more at home in erotic fiction and old romance than in plain speech. Its strongest pull is toward virginity. John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749) has a 'virgin-flower' still 'uncrop'd'. To give away or lose one's flower means a first sexual experience, imagined as a picked or wilting bloom. Modern comic writing plays on its primness with phrases like lady flower. In neutral contexts, vulva is the safe word. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • John Cleland wrote Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. en.wikipedia.org
    • 1749 is the first edition's title-page date. en.wikisource.org
    • The novel contains 'virgin-flower' and 'uncrop'd' in the stated relationship. en.wikisource.org
12. 12
    fancy phrasenouncountable or uncountable

    A figure of speech or ornamental turn of phrase used to embellish one's style.

    Like decorative molding on a building: pleasing to the eye but holding nothing up.

    The orator embellished his address with every flower of rhetoric he could muster.

    Victorian prose often overflows with flowers of speech that modern readers find tiresome.

    UsageUsually plural, in flowers of speech or flowers of rhetoric.

    Similarflourish, ornament, embellishment

13. 13
    USFLOH-ur/ˈfloʊɚ/UKUKFLOH-uh/ˈfləʊə/US

    rivernounrarecountable

    Something that flows, especially a river, parsed as 'flow-er,' one that flows.

    In cryptic crosswords, a clue that mentions a flower often points to a river.

    one that flows with force and speed; the fast flower

    1959, Scottish Studies, volumes 3-4

    Similarriver, stream

    Note

    A different word that happens to share the spelling: flow plus the agent suffix -er, 'one that flows'. It turns up mainly in translations of river names. John T. White's Caesar vocabulary glosses the Rhone as 'Swift-flower', and Arthur A. Macdonell's Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1893) calls the Sarayu a 'swift flower'. It also appears in crosswords, where setters use it as a misleading clue for a river. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Flower meaning something that flows is a separate formation from flow and the agent suffix -er. en.wiktionary.org
    • White's vocabulary gives Swift-flower as a possible meaning of the name Rhodanus, now Rhone. en.wiktionary.org
    • Arthur A. Macdonell's A Sanskrit-English Dictionary was published in 1893. gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de
    • Macdonell's dictionary glosses Sarayu as swift flower. gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de
14. 14
    turn to powderverbarchaicintransitive

    To come off as a fine powder through sublimation, depositing on a cooler surface.

    observations which have flowered off

    [1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib

    Similareffloresce

    Note

    The verb partner of the chemist's powdery flowers, usually with off: a substance flowers off when it rises by sublimation and settles as powder. Milton borrows it in Of Education (1644), writing of 'observations which have flowered off', as if useful knowledge could be distilled from a larger mass. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The chemical verb flower means to come off as powder through sublimation. en.wiktionary.org
    • John Milton's Of Education was first published in 1644. content.www.wellcomecollection.org
    • Milton wrote the quoted words in Of Education. en.wikisource.org
    • Milton's phrase can be read as a figurative application of the sublimation sense. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    frothverbarchaicintransitive

    To froth and ferment gently, as new beer or cider does in its early days.

    That beer did flower a little.

    1627, Francis [Bacon], Sylua Syluarum

    Note

    An archaic brewer's verb for the gentle frothing of new beer. Francis Bacon notes in 1627 that 'that beer did flower a little'. Because the sense is archaic, readers will meet it in older writing about brewing. It is not a word to use for describing a beer today. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Flower is an archaic verb meaning to froth or ferment gently, as new beer does. en.wiktionary.org
    • Francis Bacon wrote the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
    • The quotation belongs to a work first published in 1627. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    Finely ground meal from wheat or other grain used in baking: the older spelling of modern flour.

    The Flovvers of Grains mix'd vvith VVater vvill make a ſort of Glue.

    1731, John Arbuthnot, “Of the Different Intentions to be Pursued in the Choice of Aliment in Different Constitutions”

    Note

    An older spelling worth recognizing in early texts. John Arbuthnot in 1731 notes that the flowers of grains mixed with water make a sort of glue, meaning ground meal. Flour is the same word, set apart only by spelling; their shared Latin root is told under the everyday bloom. Because the usage is obsolete, writing flower for meal today would read as a misspelling. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Flower is an obsolete spelling for flour, meaning ground meal. en.wiktionary.org
    • John Arbuthnot wrote that grain flour mixed with water makes a kind of glue. en.wiktionary.org
    • Arbuthnot's passage appeared in the first edition of An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments in 1731. en.wiktionary.org
    • Flour and flower historically represent the same word, with the meal sense distinguished by spelling. en.wiktionary.org
    • Flour and flower share a Latin source. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    period bloodnounobsoletecountable or uncountableplural

    The blood and tissue discharged from the womb during menstruation.

    And if any man lye with her at all, and her flowers be vpon him, hee shall be vncleane seuen dayes: and all the bed whereon he lyeth, shall be vncleane.

    1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version

    Note

    An old word for menstruation, used in the plural and found in Bible English. The King James Bible of 1611 warns that a man who lies with a woman while 'her flowers be upon him' is unclean seven days. The sense is obsolete, so readers meet it in old texts and should not use it; menstruation is the word to use instead. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Flowers was an old plural term for menstrual discharge. en.wiktionary.org
    • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikisource.org
    • Leviticus 15:24 uses the quoted expression and prescribes seven days of uncleanness; the item's quotation modernizes the spelling of vpon. kingjamesbibleonline.org
18. 18
    noun

    Decorative pieces of cast type, used chiefly to build borders around pages, cards, and similar printed matter.
19. 19
    noun

    A fine powder condensed directly from a vapor by sublimation, now found mainly in names such as flowers of sulfur.

    Exposed to a moderate fire in subliming pots, [brimstone] rises all into dry, and almost tasteless, flowers; whereas being exposed to a naked fire, it affords store of a saline and fretting liquor.

    1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist