Definition of "squill" [squill]

• Any of several bulbous Eurasian and African plants of the genus Scilla, having narrow leaves and bell-shaped blue, white, or pink flowers. (noun)
• See sea onion. (noun)
• The dried inner scales of the bulbs of any of these plants, used as rat poison and formerly as a cardiac stimulant, expectorant, and diuretic. (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.

• "Granite bedrock and boulders – all encrusted with lichens – are lapped in clumps of white bladder campion and pink thrift, drifts of bluebells and patches of turf starred with vernal squill (the seaside bluebell)."
• "The 'Spring Beauty' Siberian squill flourishes in colder parts of the country."
• "Fulmars, uncharacteristically quiet today, sit on their ledges among more splashes of bright pink, cascades of yellow bird's-foot trefoil and the last of the blue spring squill."