Definition of "bulrush" [bul•rush]

• Any of various aquatic or wetland herbs of the genus Scirpus, having grasslike leaves and usually clusters of small, often brown spikelets. (noun)
• Any of several wetland plants of similar aspect, such as the papyrus and the cattail. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The name bulrush is more correctly applied to _Scirpus lacustris_, a member of a different family (Cyperaceae), a common plant in wet places, with tall spongy, usually leafless stems, bearing a tuft of many-flowered spikelets."
• "The giant was in the midst of it; but weak as the bulrush were the mighty limbs of Maximus before the rushing gale."
• "Trivia note of the week: apparently this plant used to be called reedmace, and became known as 'bulrush' because of an erroneously named but popular painting."