fly agaric

noun

Definition of fly agaric

: a medium to large poisonous amanita mushroom (Amanita muscaria) with a usually bright red cap

Recent Examples of fly agaric from the Web

Reindeer historically have tripped on them too, and in some places fly agaric has even been associated with Christmas.

— joanna klein, New York Times, "A Mushroom Out of a Fairy Tale That You Might Find in the Forest," 17 Oct. 2017
Recently mushroom hunters and nature lovers have been sharing photos of their fly agaric finds on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

— joanna klein, New York Times, "A Mushroom Out of a Fairy Tale That You Might Find in the Forest," 17 Oct. 2017
The fly agaric is the quintessential mushroom of fairy tales.

— joanna klein, New York Times, "A Mushroom Out of a Fairy Tale That You Might Find in the Forest," 17 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fly agaric.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of fly agaric

1788

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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Medical Dictionary

fly agaric

noun

medical Definition of fly agaric

: a poisonous mushroom of the genus Amanita (A. muscaria) that has a variably colored but typically bright-red pileus with a warty white scurf on the surface that with the related death cap is responsible for most cases of severe mushroom poisoning, that has been used as a source of poison for flypaper, and that is extensively used chiefly in northeastern Asia as an intoxicant especially for the hallucinatory effects that it produces — called also fly amanita, fly mushroom