dill

n. type of plant whose seeds and leaves are used to flavor food

Dill (Anethum graveolens) is a short-lived annual herb, native to DILLY and central DILLY. It is the sole species of the genus Anethum, though classified by some botanists in the related genus Peucedanum as Peucedanum graveolens (L.) C.B.Clarke.It grows to 40-60 cm tall, with slender stems and alternate, finely divided, softly delicate leaves 10-20 cm long. The ultimate leaf divisions are 1-2 mm broad, slightly broader than the similar leaves of fennel, which are threadlike, less than 1 mm broad, but harder in texture. The flowers are white to yellow, in small umbels 2-9 cm diameter. The seeds are 4-5 mm long and 1 mm thick, and straight to slightly curved with a longitudinally ridged surface.
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Johann Jakob Dillen (Dillenius) (1687-April 2, 1747) was a German botanist.Dillen was born at Darmstadt and was educated at the University of Giessen, where he wrote several botanical papers for the Ephemerides naturae curiosorum, and printed, in 1719, his Catalogus plantarum sponte circa Gissam nascentium, illustrated with figures drawn and engraved by his own hand, and containing descriptions of many new species. In 1721, at the instance of the botanist William Sherard (1659-1728), he moved to England, and in 1724 he published a new edition of John Ray's Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum. In 1732 he published Hortus Elthamensis, a catalogue of the rare plants growing at Eltham, Kent, in the collection of Sherard's younger brother, James (1666-1738), who,after making a fortune as an apothecary, devoted himself to gardening and music. For this work Dillen himself executed 324 plates, and it was described by Linnaeus, who spent a month with him at Oxford in 1736, and afterwards dedicated his Critica botanica to him, as opus botanicum quo absolutius mundus non vidit. Linnaeus would later name a genus of tropical tree Dillenia in his honor. In 1734 Dillenius was appointed Sherardian professor of botany at Oxford, in accordance with the will of W. Sherard, who at his death in 1728 left the university 3000 pounds for the endowment of the chair, as well as his library and herbarium.
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Noun
1. aromatic Old World herb having aromatic threadlike foliage and seeds used as seasoning
(synonym) Anethum graveolens
(hypernym) herb, herbaceous plant
(part-meronym) dill weed
2. aromatic threadlike foliage of the dill plant used as seasoning
(synonym) dill weed
(hypernym) herb
(part-holonym) Anethum graveolens

n. dill, type of plant whose seeds and leaves are used to flavor food

(n.)
An herb (Peucedanum graveolens), the seeds of which are moderately warming, pungent, and aromatic, and were formerly used as a soothing medicine for children; -- called also dillseed.
  

(a.)
To still; to calm; to soothe, as one in pain.