Definition of "hellebore" in English

noun

1. Any of the common garden flowering plants of the genus Helleborus, in family Ranunculaceae, having supposed medicinal properties.

   • 1998, Plinio Prioreschi, A History of Medicine, Volume III: Roman Medicine, page 122, Then the physician would use the king of remedies, the powerful one, hellebore: […] We suspect that after a sufficient number of administrations of hellebore the patient, if he had not done so before, would declare himself cured.

2. A toxic extract of certain false hellebores (Veratrum album or Veratrum viride), formerly used as a pesticide.

   • 1915 July 14, Leland Ossian Howard, Robert Harris Hutchison, House Flies, US Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 679, page 15, Of the numerous substances tried, the one which seems best to fulfill these conditions is powdered hellebore. Some of the powdered hellebore in use is prepared from the roots of a plant which botanists know as Veratrum viride, and which is popularly known as Indian polk or itch weed.