Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- any of various heaths, especially Calluna vulgaris, of England and Scotland, having small, pinkish-purple flowers.
adjective
- (of a yarn or fabric color) subtly flecked or mottled: all-cotton turtlenecks in your choice of five solid colors plus heather gray and heather green.
noun
- a female given name.
noun
- Also called: ling, heath a low-growing evergreen Eurasian ericaceous shrub, Calluna vulgaris, that grows in dense masses on open ground and has clusters of small bell-shaped typically pinkish-purple flowers
- any of certain similar plants
- a purplish-red to pinkish-purple colour
adjective
- of a heather colour
- of or relating to interwoven yarns of mixed coloursheather mixture
early 14c., hathir, from Old English *hæddre, Scottish or northern England dialect name for Calluna vulgaris, probably altered by heath, but real connection to that word is unlikely [Liberman, OED]. Perhaps originally Celtic. As a fem. proper name little used in U.S. before 1935, but a top-15 name for girls born there 1971-1989.