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# wormwood

«wormwood» in Mova's school dictionary: **A plant with silvery-grey leaves and a very bitter taste…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (wormwood — uncountable; a wormwood plant)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A plant with silvery-grey leaves and a very bitter taste, used long ago in medicine and in some strong drinks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#m1)

2) Something very bitter or painful to bear: «The defeat was wormwood to him.» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#m2)

3) (Bible) In the Bible wormwood stands for bitterness and sorrow, and in the Book of Revelation «Wormwood» is the name of a star that falls and makes waters bitter. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science and history lessons it is a herb of old medicine; its name comes from an old belief that it drove out worms. In stories and poems «gall and wormwood» means great bitterness. In the Bible (Lamentations, Revelation) it is a sign of grief. Phrases: «gall and wormwood», «as bitter as wormwood».

### examples

- Wormwood has soft grey leaves and smells strong. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#x1)
- The old herbalist hung bunches of wormwood to dry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#x2)
- Wormwood tastes so bitter that nobody wanted a second sip. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#x3)
- In the story, losing the race was wormwood to the proud prince. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#x4)
- In Revelation, a star called Wormwood falls from the sky. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#x5)
- Gardeners sometimes plant wormwood to keep some insects away. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#x6)
- But scarcely had he drunk a very little of the water when he became worse than before, for it was as bitter as wormwood. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/#x7)

### note

Usually uncountable. It is not a worm and not wood. Some wormwood is poisonous in large amounts, so never eat wild plants. In Ukrainian, a kind of wormwood is called «chornobyl», which people sometimes link to the Chernobyl story.

### In the corpora

- [Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast righteousness to the ground;](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/AMO.71/)
- [Doth one plow there with oxen? that ye have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood;](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/AMO.107/)
- [But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.121/)
- [They pluck salt-wort with wormwood; and the roots of the broom are their food.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.752/)
- [He hath filled me with bitterness, He hath sated me with wormwood.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.68/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «wormwood» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wormwood/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.