pissabed

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From piss +‎ bed or piss +‎ abed, so called after the dandelion's supposed diuretic effect. Compare French pissenlit.

Noun

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pissabed (plural pissabeds)

  1. 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.
  2. (dialect) Any of various other wild plants with diuretic properties; bluet, oxeye daisy, etc.

See also

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