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Heath

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heath

[heeth]

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–noun

1.	a tract of open and uncultivated land; wasteland overgrown with shrubs.

2.	any of various low-growing evergreen shrubs common on such land, as the common heather, Calluna vulgaris.

3.	any plant of the genus Erica, or of the family Ericaceae.

Compare heath family.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE hǣth; c. G Heide, ON heithr, Goth haithi; akin to Welsh coed trees, wood

Related forms:

heathless, adjective

heathlike, adjective

Heath

[heeth]

–noun

Sir Edward (Richard George), 1916–2005, British statesman: prime minister 1970–74.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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heath (hēth)

Any of various usually low-growing shrubs of the genus Erica and related genera, native to Europe and South Africa and having small evergreen leaves and small, colorful, urn-shaped flowers. Also called heather.
An extensive tract of uncultivated open land covered with herbage and low shrubs; a moor.

[Middle English, uncultivated land, from Old English hǣth; see kaito- in Indo-European roots.]

Heath (hēth)

British politician who as prime minister (1970-1974) secured his country's entry into the Common Market (1973) and sought to offset high inflation by controlling wages, which led to a crippling miners' strike (1974).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Heath

Heath\, n. [OE. heth waste land, the plant heath, AS. h??; akin to D. & G. heide, Icel. hei?r waste land, Dan. hede, Sw. hed, Goth. haipi field, L. bucetum a cow pasture; cf. W. coed a wood, Skr. ksh?tra field. [root]20.]

1. (Bot.) (a) A low shrub (Erica, or Calluna, vulgaris), with minute evergreen leaves, and handsome clusters of pink flowers. It is used in Great Britain for brooms, thatch, beds for the poor, and for heating ovens. It is also called heather, and ling. (b) Also, any species of the genus Erica, of which several are European, and many more are South African, some of great beauty. See Illust. of Heather.

2. A place overgrown with heath; any cheerless tract of country overgrown with shrubs or coarse herbage.

Their stately growth, though bare, Stands on the blasted heath. --Milton

Heath cock (Zo["o]l.), the blackcock. See Heath grouse (below).

Heath grass (Bot.), a kind of perennial grass, of the genus Triodia (T. decumbens), growing on dry heaths.

Heath grouse, or Heath game (Zo["o]l.), a European grouse (Tetrao tetrix), which inhabits heats; -- called also black game, black grouse, heath poult, heath fowl, moor fowl. The male is called, heath cock, and blackcock; the female, heath hen, and gray hen.

Heath hen. (Zo["o]l.) See Heath grouse (above).

Heath pea (bot.), a species of bitter vetch (Lathyris macrorhizus), the tubers of which are eaten, and in Scotland are used to flavor whisky.

Heath throstle (Zo["o]l.), a European thrush which frequents heaths; the ring ouzel.

heath

O.E. hæð "tract of wasteland," earlier "heather," infl. by O.N. heiðr "field," from P.Gmc. *khaithijo (cf. O.S. hetha, O.H.G. heida "heather," Du. heide "heath," Goth. haiþi "field"), from PIE *kait- "open, unplowed country" (cf. O.Ir. ciad, Welsh coed, Breton coet "wood, forest").

Heath

Heb. 'arar, (Jer. 17:6; 48:6), a species of juniper called by the Arabs by the same name ('arar), the Juniperus sabina or savin. "Its gloomy, stunted appearance, with its scale-like leaves pressed close to its gnarled stem, and cropped close by the wild goats, as it clings to the rocks about Petra, gives great force to the contrast suggested by the prophet, between him that trusteth in man, naked and destitute, and the man that trusteth in the Lord, flourishing as a tree planted by the waters" (Tristram, Natural History of the Bible).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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