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Definition of "elecampane" [el•e•cam•pane]

  • A tall coarse plant (Inula helenium) native to central Asia, having rayed yellow flower heads. The roots are used medicinally. (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.

Use "elecampane" in a sentence
  • "I went quietly about the room, picking up the discarded clothes, straightening the trifling disorder on the table, putting fresh charcoal in the brazier, adding a pinch of elecampane to sweeten the smoke."
  • "Culpeper endorsed elecampane wholeheartedly: “It has not its equal in the cure of whooping-cough in children, when all other medicines fail.”"
  • "Vegetation was not so completely destroyed; trees died and remained bare and pickled; some grasses suffered, but others of the ranker sort flourished, and great areas were covered by a carpet of dwarfed and stunted corn-cockles and elecampane set in grey fluff."