poppy

CEFRB2

/ˈpɒpi/

noun · adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A flower with delicate petals, often red.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A bright red colour tinted with orange, like that of the common poppy flower.

Examples

  • We made a cake and we put poppy seeds inside.

  • Our dog is called "Poppy".

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
4
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A simple artificial poppy flower worn in a buttonhole or displayed in other contexts to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts, especially around Remembrance Day/Remembrance Sunday.

  2. Any plant of the genus Papaver or the family Papaveraceae, with crumpled, often red, petals and a milky juice having narcotic properties; especially a common poppy or corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) which has orange-red flowers; the flower of such a plant.

adjective

Extra meaning

  1. Of a bright red colour tinted with orange, like that of the common poppy flower (Papaver rhoeas).

More examples

In context

  • In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, / That mark our place; […] / If ye break faith with us who die / We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields.

  • I thought Sparks were great; they were very poppy for Island Records. They were considered an oddity but you have to remember that at the time Roxy Music, now everyone's seminal band, were seen as very poppy.

  • Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The red blank flower is a symbol of remembrance for fallen soldiers.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

PIE word *péh₂wr̥ The noun is derived from Late Middle English poppy, Middle English popy, popi, popie (“plant of the genus Papaver; poppy seeds used as a spice”) [and other forms], from Old English popiġ (“poppy”), Early Old English popeġ, popaeġ, popæġ, popei [and other forms], perhaps from Late Latin *papavum, popauer, from Latin papāver (“poppy”), which may be from a reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ (“bonfire”). Doublet of papaver. Sense 3 (“artificial poppy flower to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts”) reflects the efforts of American professor and humanitarian Moina Michael (1869–1944) to popularize the wearing of artificial poppies i...