CALTROP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does caltrop mean? 

• CALTROP (noun)
  The noun CALTROP has 3 senses:

1. tropical annual procumbent poisonous subshrub having fruit that splits into five spiny nutlets; serious pasture weed

2. a plant of the genus Trapa bearing spiny four-pronged edible nutlike fruits

3. Mediterranean annual or biennial herb having pinkish to purple flowers surrounded by spine-tipped scales; naturalized in America

  Familiarity information: CALTROP used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CALTROP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tropical annual procumbent poisonous subshrub having fruit that splits into five spiny nutlets; serious pasture weed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

caltrop; devil's weed; Tribulus terestris

Hypernyms ("caltrop" is a kind of...):

subshrub; suffrutex (low-growing woody shrub or perennial with woody base)

Holonyms ("caltrop" is a member of...):

genus Tribulus; Tribulus (annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs of warm regions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A plant of the genus Trapa bearing spiny four-pronged edible nutlike fruits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

caltrop; water chestnut; water chestnut plant

Hypernyms ("caltrop" is a kind of...):

aquatic plant; hydrophyte; hydrophytic plant; water plant (a plant that grows partly or wholly in water whether rooted in the mud, as a lotus, or floating without anchorage, as the water hyacinth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "caltrop"):

Jesuits' nut; Trapa natans; water caltrop (a variety of water chestnut)

ling; ling ko; Trapa bicornis (water chestnut whose spiny fruit has two rather than 4 prongs)

Holonyms ("caltrop" is a member of...):

genus Trapa; Trapa (small genus of Eurasian aquatic perennial herbs: water chestnut)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Mediterranean annual or biennial herb having pinkish to purple flowers surrounded by spine-tipped scales; naturalized in America

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

caltrop; Centauria calcitrapa; star-thistle

Hypernyms ("caltrop" is a kind of...):

centaury (any plant of the genus Centaurea)