Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various evergreen trees or shrubs of the genus Cupressus, native to Eurasia and North America and having opposite, scalelike leaves and globose woody cones.
  • noun Any of several similar or related coniferous trees, such as the bald cypress.
  • noun The wood of any of these trees.
  • noun Cypress branches used as a symbol of mourning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany: The popular name of coniferous trees of the genus Cupressus.
  • noun A name given to other coniferous trees nearly allied to the true cypresses.
  • noun One of various plants so named from a fancied resemblance to the true cypress, as the standing cypress, Gilia coronopifolia, a tall, slender, polemoniaceous herb, with divided leaves and scarlet flowers, and the Belvedere, broom-, or summer cypress, a tall chenopodiaceous plant, Kochia scoparia, sometimes cultivated.
  • noun An emblem of mourning for the dead, cypress-branches having been anciently used at funerals.
  • Belonging to or made of cypress.
  • noun The English galingale, Cyperus longus: called sweet cypress from its aromatic roots. Also cypress-root.
  • noun A thin transparent black or white stuff; a kind of crape.
  • Made of or resembling cypress.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot) A coniferous tree of the genus Cupressus. The species are mostly evergreen, and have wood remarkable for its durability.
  • noun (Bot.) a climbing plant with red or white flowers (Ipotœa Quamoclit, formerly Quamoclit vulgaris).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An evergreen coniferous tree with flattened shoots bearing small scale-like leaves, whose dark foliage is sometimes associated with mourning, in family Cupressaceae, especially the genera Cupressus and Chamaecyparis

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun wood of any of various cypress trees especially of the genus Cupressus
  • noun any of numerous evergreen conifers of the genus Cupressus of north temperate regions having dark scalelike leaves and rounded cones

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English cipres, from Old French, from Late Latin cypressus, probably blend of Latin cupressus and cyparissus (from Greek kuparissos).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κυπάρισσος (kuparissos).

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