cinquefoil
any of several plants belonging to the genus Potentilla, of the rose family, having yellow, red, or white five-petaled flowers, as P. reptans(creeping cinquefoil ), of the Old World, or P. argentea(silvery cinquefoil ), of North America.
Also called quinquefoil, quintefoil. Architecture. a panellike ornament consisting of five lobes, divided by cusps, radiating from a common center.
Heraldry. a charge in the form of a five-leaved clover.
Origin of cinquefoil
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use cinquefoil in a sentence
The aisle windows are each of three lights, with three circles in the head, two filled with cinquefoils and one with a quatrefoil.
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln | A. F. KendrickThe Cinquefoils receive this name from the French and it refers to the five-parted leaves.
Flowers of Mountain and Plain | Edith S. ClementsThese are decorated with trefoils and quatrefoils, alternately with cinquefoils and octofoils.
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury | Gleeson WhiteThe florets gathered in the daisy are cinquefoils, examined closely.
Proserpina, Volume 1 | John Ruskin
British Dictionary definitions for cinquefoil
/ (ˈsɪŋkˌfɔɪl) /
any plant of the N temperate rosaceous genus Potentilla, typically having five-lobed compound leaves
an ornamental carving in the form of five arcs arranged in a circle and separated by cusps
heraldry a charge representing a five-petalled flower
Origin of cinquefoil
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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