verdure

noun

ver·dure ˈvər-jər

also -dyər

Synonyms of verdure next

: the greenness of growing vegetation

also : such vegetation itself

: a condition of health and vigor

verdurous

ˈverj-rəs;

ˈver-jə-rəs

-dyə-

adjective

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The Mult-Lingual Verdure

English speakers have had the use of the word verdure since the 14th century, when it made its way into Middle English from Anglo-French. Like the more common verdant, the word traces back to Latin virēre, meaning "to be green." Since the early 16th century, verdure has also been used to refer to a kind of tapestry with a design based on plant forms. The verdure that English speakers sometimes encounter on menus is Italian; in that language verdure refers to green vegetables or to vegetables in general (as in "fettuccine con verdure").

Example Sentences

a good time to tour the wine country is when it is clothed with the verdure of midsummer a portrait of a fresh-faced teenage girl in all of her youthful verdure and irrepressible joie de vivre

Recent Examples on the Web Before our trip to the distillery, Omar and I had been in the tiny Oaxacan village of Santo Tomás Jalieza, a place of large-leaved verdure, corrugated steel fencing and tropical lanes of red earth, with puddles that reflected the vacant intensity of the Mexican sky. —

New York Times, 11 Nov. 2021 AudioLust & HigherLove writing sessions were hosted at two residential recording studios in the U.K.: Decoy Residential, set in the verdure of the Suffolk countryside, and Angelic Recording Studio, perched on a rural hill 90 minutes outside of London. —

Rachel Narozniak, Billboard, 26 Jan. 2023 While tourists have returned in full force to Paris, with crowds thronging the major monuments in the city center, Bagatelle offers intriguing heritage, a chateau born of a bet with Marie Antoinette, and 59 acres of verdure about five miles from the Notre-Dame cathedral. —

Mary Winston Nicklin, Washington Post, 17 June 2022 In contrast is the almost hallucinatory verdure of the grounds outdoors, the world of the gamekeeper (Jack O’Connell) with whom the Lady forges a passionate affair. —

Maria Neuman, WSJ, 2 Dec. 2022 Brussels sprouts make the delicious verdure pizza look like Christmas. —

Washington Post, 21 Dec. 2021 The road was flanked by walls of dolomite, valley floors of grapevines and verdure. —

New York Times, 10 Nov. 2021 The pizza that calls to me most, verdure, looks like Christmas. —

Washington Post, 29 Oct. 2021 And an acknowledgment of allegory: that a color could stand for a condition of verdure, ailing, on a planetary scale. —

Gillian Osborne, Harper's Magazine, 22 June 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'verdure.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.