poppy

/ˈpɑpi/

/ˈpɒpi/

Other forms: poppies

A poppy is a big, bright flower that blooms at the height of summer. Many poppies have brilliant red papery petals.

Poppies are beautiful flowers that play a big role in The Wizard of Oz when a field full of the flowers puts Dorothy to sleep. The scene refers to poppies as the source of opium, a powerful, sleep-inducing drug that's made from one species of poppy. Another variety gives us the poppy seeds used on bagels and in lemon muffins. In Britain, poppies are a symbol of Remembrance, the U.K. equivalent of Veteran's Day.

Definitions of poppy

1. noun

   annual or perennial herb with milky juice and showy flowers
   types:

   Iceland poppy, Papaver alpinum

   Old World alpine poppy with white or yellow to orange flowers

   Papaver californicum, western poppy

   showy annual of California with red flowers

   Papaver argemone, prickly poppy

   annual Old World poppy with orange-red flowers and bristly fruit

   Iceland poppy, Papaver nudicaule, arctic poppy

   subarctic perennial poppy of both hemispheres having fragrant white or yellow to orange or peach flowers

   Papaver orientale, oriental poppy

   commonly cultivated Asiatic perennial poppy having stiff heavily haired leaves and bright scarlet or pink to orange flowers

   Flanders poppy, Papaver rhoeas, corn poppy, field poppy

   annual European poppy common in grain fields and often cultivated

   Papaver somniferum, opium poppy

   southwestern Asian herb with greyish leaves and white or reddish flowers; source of opium

   Chelidonium majus, celandine, greater celandine, swallow wort, swallowwort

   perennial herb with branched woody stock and bright yellow flowers

   California poppy, Eschscholtzia californica

   of Pacific coast of North America; widely cultivated for its yellow to red flowers

   Hunnemania fumariifolia, Mexican tulip poppy, golden cup

   native of Mexican highlands grown for its glossy clear yellow flowers and blue-grey finely dissected foliage

   Macleaya cordata, bocconia, plume poppy

   herb of China and Japan widely cultivated for its plumelike panicles of creamy white flowers

   Meconopsis betonicifolia, blue poppy

   Chinese perennial having mauve-pink to bright sky blue flowers in drooping cymes

   Meconopsis cambrica, Welsh poppy

   widely cultivated west European plant with showy pale yellow flowers

   Platystemon californicus, creamcups

   California plant with small pale yellow flowers

   Papaver heterophyllum, Stylomecon heterophyllum, flaming poppy, wind poppy

   California wild poppy with bright red flowers

   Stylophorum diphyllum, celandine poppy, wood poppy

   perennial herb native to woodland of the eastern United States having yellow flowers

   type of:

   flower

   a plant cultivated for its blooms or blossoms
2. noun

   a bright, showy flower that blooms at the height of summer