VERDURE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does verdure mean? 

• VERDURE (noun)
  The noun VERDURE has 2 senses:

1. green foliage

2. the lush appearance of flourishing vegetation

  Familiarity information: VERDURE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VERDURE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Green foliage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

greenery; verdure

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

foliage; leaf; leafage (the main organ of photosynthesis and transpiration in higher plants)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The lush appearance of flourishing vegetation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

greenness; verdancy; verdure

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

cornucopia; profuseness; profusion; richness (the property of being extremely abundant)

 Context examples 

It surprised me that what before was desert and gloomy should now bloom with the most beautiful flowers and verdure.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The five weeks which she had now passed in Kent had made a great difference in the country, and every day was adding to the verdure of the early trees.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

They determined on walking round Beechen Cliff, that noble hill whose beautiful verdure and hanging coppice render it so striking an object from almost every opening in Bath.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“I shall soon be rested,” said Fanny; “to sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And yet, as we looked up at that beautiful fringe of verdure only a few hundreds of feet above our heads, there was not one of us who could conceive the idea of returning to London until we had explored it to its depths.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I discovered, too, that a great pleasure, an enjoyment which the horizon only bounded, lay all outside the high and spike-guarded walls of our garden: this pleasure consisted in prospect of noble summits girdling a great hill-hollow, rich in verdure and shadow; in a bright beck, full of dark stones and sparkling eddies.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was a solemn place, for the walls were so gigantic and the slit of blue sky so narrow and so obscured by a double fringe of verdure, that only a dim and shadowy light penetrated to the bottom.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To be losing such pleasures was no trifle; to be losing them, because she was in the midst of closeness and noise, to have confinement, bad air, bad smells, substituted for liberty, freshness, fragrance, and verdure, was infinitely worse: but even these incitements to regret were feeble, compared with what arose from the conviction of being missed by her best friends, and the longing to be useful to those who were wanting her!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The colleges are ancient and picturesque; the streets are almost magnificent; and the lovely Isis, which flows beside it through meadows of exquisite verdure, is spread forth into a placid expanse of waters, which reflects its majestic assemblage of towers, and spires, and domes, embosomed among aged trees.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)