See Also: cypress(dictionary)
cypress(encyclopedia)
cypress(dictionary)
cypress(2)(dictionary)
cypress(1)(dictionary)
Leyland cypress(dictionary)
Lawson's cypress(dictionary)
Big Cypress Swamp(encyclopedia)
bald cypress(encyclopedia)
Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center(health)

cypress(1) (iou)



cypress noun1. ME.
[Old French cipres (mod. cypres) from late Latin cypressus from Greek kuparissos, of alien origin; spelling later assim. to Latin.]
An evergreen coniferous tree of the Eurasian and N. American genus Cupressus having flattened shoots with scalelike leaves; esp. (also Italian cypress) C. sempervirens, a tall, often fastigiate, tree native to southern Europe and the Middle East, with dark foliage and hard durable wood. Also cypress tree. ME.
G. Durrell An admonishing finger of black cypress against the sky.
b. With specifying word: any of numerous trees or shrubs related to or resembling the true cypresses. M16.
African cypress a conifer of the African genus Widdringtonia. bald cypress Taxodium distichum, a N. American conifer of water margins, often with exposed root-buttresses. false cypress a conifer of the N. American and Asian genus Chamaecyparis, closely related to Cupressus. LAWSON'S CYPRESS. Monterey cypress: see MONTEREY 2. Nootka cypress: see NOOTKA adjective 1. SITKA cypress. summer cypress = BELVEDERE 2. swamp cypress = bald cypress above.
c. Foliage of C. sempervirens regarded or used as a symbol of mourning. L16.
Tennyson That remorseless iron hour Made cypress of her orange flower. attrib.: O. Wilde The quenched-out torch, the lonely cypress-gloom.
The wood of any of these trees. ME.
Comb.: cypress-knee an exposed root-buttress of bald cypress; cypress pine a small Australian conifer of the genus Callitris; cypress spurge a European spurge, Euphorbia cyparissias (freq. cultivated), with numerous pale green linear leaves, suggesting a miniature conifer; cypress-vine a tropical American climbing plant with scarlet flowers, Ipomoea quamoclit, of the bindweed family.