IVY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ivy mean? 

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

1. Old World vine with lobed evergreen leaves and black berrylike fruits

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• IVY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Old World vine with lobed evergreen leaves and black berrylike fruits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

common ivy; English ivy; Hedera helix; ivy

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

vine (a plant with a weak stem that derives support from climbing, twining, or creeping along a surface)

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

genus Hedera; Hedera (Old World woody vines)

 Context examples 

He had undoubtedly let himself down by the ivy, for we could see the marks of his feet where he had landed on the lawn.

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

The researchers developed a synthetic version of the gene and through slow and complicated measures eventually introduce it to the pothos ivy so that every cell in the plant expressed the protein.

(Common Houseplant with Genetic Modification Can Remove Polluted Air, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I step aside into the ivy recess; he will not stay long: he will soon return whence he came, and if I sit still he will never see me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Poison ivy is a frequent cause of such reactivity, due to the urushiol from the plant, as are a variety of antigens derived from industrial exposure (e.g. rubber, chromate, nickel).

(Contact Hypersensitivity, NCI Thesaurus)

A drug used to treat allergies and relieve cough and itching caused by insect bites, sunburn, and poison oak or ivy.

(Diphenhydramine, NCI Dictionary)

Some are available over-the-counter (without a doctor’s order) and may help lessen local pain, irritation, and itching caused by conditions such as cold sores, sunburn, poison ivy, and minor cuts.

(Local anesthesia, NCI Dictionary)

Without, the sun shines bright and the birds are singing amid the ivy on the drooping beeches.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His friends were those of his own blood or those whom he had known the longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A pleasant old garden on the borders of the lovely lake, with chestnuts rustling overhead, ivy climbing everywhere, and the black shadow of the tower falling far across the sunny water.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

There was a little green perspective of trellis-work and ivy at the side of our cottage, through which I could see, from the garden where I was walking, into the road before the house.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)