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SORREL
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A horse of a brownish orange to light brown color
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("sorrel" is a kind of...):
Equus caballus; horse (solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Large sour-tasting arrowhead-shaped leaves used in salads and sauces
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("sorrel" is a kind of...):
green; greens; leafy vegetable (any of various leafy plants or their leaves and stems eaten as vegetables)
Holonyms ("sorrel" is a part of...):
garden sorrel; Rumex acetosa; sour dock (European sorrel with large slightly acidic sagittate leaves grown throughout north temperate zone for salad and spring greens)
Sense 3
Meaning:
East Indian sparsely prickly annual herb or perennial subshrub widely cultivated for its fleshy calyxes used in tarts and jelly and for its bast fiber
Synonyms:
Hibiscus sabdariffa; Jamaica sorrel; red sorrel; roselle; rozelle; sorrel
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("sorrel" is a kind of...):
hibiscus (any plant of the genus Hibiscus)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Any of certain coarse weedy plants with long taproots, sometimes used as table greens or in folk medicine
Synonyms:
dock; sorrel; sour grass
Classified under:
Nouns denoting plants
Hypernyms ("sorrel" is a kind of...):
herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sorrel"):
garden sorrel; Rumex acetosa; sour dock (European sorrel with large slightly acidic sagittate leaves grown throughout north temperate zone for salad and spring greens)
Rumex acetosella; sheep's sorrel; sheep sorrel (small plant having pleasantly acid-tasting arrow-shaped leaves; common in dry places)
bitter dock; broad-leaved dock; Rumex obtusifolius; yellow dock (European dock with broad obtuse leaves and bitter rootstock common as a weed in North America)
French sorrel; garden sorrel; Rumex scutatus (low perennial with small silvery-green ovate to hastate leaves)
Holonyms ("sorrel" is a member of...):
genus Rumex; Rumex (docks: coarse herbs and shrubs mainly native to north temperate regions)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Any plant or flower of the genus Oxalis
Synonyms:
oxalis; sorrel; wood sorrel
Classified under:
Nouns denoting plants
Hypernyms ("sorrel" is a kind of...):
herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sorrel"):
common wood sorrel; cuckoo bread; Oxalis acetosella; shamrock (Eurasian plant with heart-shaped trifoliate leaves and white purple-veined flowers)
Bermuda buttercup; English-weed; Oxalis cernua; Oxalis pes-caprae (South African bulbous wood sorrel with showy yellow flowers)
creeping oxalis; creeping wood sorrel; Oxalis corniculata (creeping much-branched mat-forming weed; cosmopolitan)
goat's foot; goatsfoot; Oxalis caprina (short-stemmed South African plant with bluish flowers)
Oxalis violacea; violet wood sorrel (perennial herb of eastern North America with palmately compound leaves and usually rose-purple flowers)
oca; oka; Oxalis crenata; Oxalis tuberosa (South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers)
Holonyms ("sorrel" is a member of...):
genus Oxalis (type genus of the Oxalidaceae; large genus of plants having leaves that resemble clover and variously colored flowers usually clustered in umbels)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of a light brownish color
Synonyms:
brownish-orange; sorrel
Classified under:
Similar:
chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)
Context examples:
I requested likewise, that the secret of my having a false covering to my body, might be known to none but himself, at least as long as my present clothing should last; for as to what the sorrel nag, his valet, had observed, his honour might command him to conceal it.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I took out my pocket glass, and could then clearly distinguish it above five leagues off, as I computed; but it appeared to the sorrel nag to be only a blue cloud: for as he had no conception of any country beside his own, so he could not be as expert in distinguishing remote objects at sea, as we who so much converse in that element.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
My master, in a few words, made me a very gracious reply; allowed me the space of two months to finish my boat; and ordered the sorrel nag, my fellow-servant (for so, at this distance, I may presume to call him), to follow my instruction; because I told my master, that his help would be sufficient, and I knew he had a tenderness for me.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I went on one side about two hundred yards, and beckoning to her not to look or to follow me, I hid myself between two leaves of sorrel, and there discharged the necessities of nature.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The sorrel nag offered me a root, which he held (after their manner, as we shall describe in its proper place) between his hoof and pastern; I took it in my hand, and, having smelt it, returned it to him again as civilly as I could.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
But I shall not trouble the reader with a particular description of my own mechanics; let it suffice to say, that in six weeks time with the help of the sorrel nag, who performed the parts that required most labour, I finished a sort of Indian canoe, but much larger, covering it with the skins of Yahoos, well stitched together with hempen threads of my own making.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I returned home, and consulting with the sorrel nag, we went into a copse at some distance, where I with my knife, and he with a sharp flint, fastened very artificially after their manner, to a wooden handle, cut down several oak wattles, about the thickness of a walking-staff, and some larger pieces.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I therefore often begged his honour to let me go among the herds of Yahoos in the neighbourhood; to which he always very graciously consented, being perfectly convinced that the hatred I bore these brutes would never suffer me to be corrupted by them; and his honour ordered one of his servants, a strong sorrel nag, very honest and good-natured, to be my guard; without whose protection I durst not undertake such adventures.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
However, I once caught a young male of three years old, and endeavoured, by all marks of tenderness, to make it quiet; but the little imp fell a squalling, and scratching, and biting with such violence, that I was forced to let it go; and it was high time, for a whole troop of old ones came about us at the noise, but finding the cub was safe (for away it ran), and my sorrel nag being by, they durst not venture near us.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He made me observe, that among the Houyhnhnms, the white, the sorrel, and the iron-gray, were not so exactly shaped as the bay, the dapple-gray, and the black; nor born with equal talents of mind, or a capacity to improve them; and therefore continued always in the condition of servants, without ever aspiring to match out of their own race, which in that country would be reckoned monstrous and unnatural.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
