GORSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gorse mean? 

• GORSE (noun)
  The noun GORSE has 1 sense:

1. very spiny and dense evergreen shrub with fragrant golden-yellow flowers; common throughout western Europe

  Familiarity information: GORSE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GORSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very spiny and dense evergreen shrub with fragrant golden-yellow flowers; common throughout western Europe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

furze; gorse; Irish gorse; Ulex europaeus; whin

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

bush; shrub (a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems)

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

genus Ulex; Ulex (genus of Eurasian spiny shrubs: gorse)

 Context examples 

I believe he must have waited among the gorse bushes through which the path winds and struck him down as he passed.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Holmes held up a crumpled branch of flowering gorse.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the other side lay a strip of vineyard, and beyond it the desolate and sandy region of the Landes, all tangled with faded gorse and heath and broom, stretching away in unbroken gloom to the blue hills which lay low upon the furthest sky-line.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then as the gorse clumps grew thinner, and the sward more level, those on foot began to run, the riders struck in their spurs, the drivers cracked their whips, and away they all streamed in the maddest, wildest cross-country steeplechase, the yellow barouche and the crimson curricle, which held the two champions, leading the van.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The heath was covered with golden patches of flowering gorse, gleaming magnificently in the light of the bright spring sunshine.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had just made out that the gig contained a man and a woman, when suddenly I saw it swerve off the road, and come with a galloping horse and bounding wheels right across the moor, crashing through the gorse bushes, and sinking down to the hubs in the heather and bracken.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A rainy night had been followed by a glorious morning, and the heath-covered countryside, with the glowing clumps of flowering gorse, seemed all the more beautiful to eyes which were weary of the duns and drabs and slate greys of London.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)