fiddlehead

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fid·dle·head

(fĭd′l-hĕd′)

1. A curved, scroll-like ornament at the top of a ship's bow resembling that on the head of a violin.

2. The young, coiled, edible frond of any of various ferns. Also called crosier.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

fiddlehead

(ˈfɪdəlˌhɛd) or

fiddleneck

1. (Nautical Terms) nautical an ornamental carving, in the shape of the scroll at the head end of a fiddle, fitted to the top of the stem or cutwater

2. (Botany) US and Canadian the edible coiled tip of a young fern frond

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fid•dle•head

(ˈfɪd lˌhɛd)

n.

the young coiled frond of a fern.

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Noun	1.	fiddlehead - tall fern of northern temperate regions having graceful arched fronds and sporophylls resembling ostrich plumes Matteuccia struthiopteris, Onoclea struthiopteris, ostrich fern, Pteretis struthiopteris, shuttlecock fern fern - any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores genus Matteuccia, genus Pteretis, Matteuccia, Pteretis - small genus sometimes included in genus Onoclea; in some classifications both genera are placed in Polypodiaceae
	2.	fiddlehead - New World fern having woolly cinnamon-colored spore-bearing fronds in early spring later surrounded by green fronds; the early uncurling fronds are edible cinnamon fern, fiddlehead fern, Osmunda cinnamonea osmund, flowering fern - any fern of the genus Osmunda: large ferns with creeping rhizomes; naked sporangia are on modified fronds that resemble flower clusters