martlet1 (martlet)

[A corruption of mart i net, a martin, martlet: see martinet1.] The martin, a bird. hooks or beaks. There are about 10 species, indigenous to Flowering Plant of Martynia proboscidea (unicorn-plant). a, the fruit. South America and the warmer parts of North America. They are prostrate or suberect branching herbs, covered with clammy hairs, and bearing roundish long petiolate leaves and large rose-purple or pale-yellow flowers, which grow in short terminal racemes. From the form of the pod, Martynia has been designated unicorn - plant, especially M. proboscidea, which is also called elephant's trunk. This coarse, heavy-scented species is wild in the Mi i ippi region as far north as Illinois, and is sometimes grown in gardens for the sake of its pods, which serve as a pickle. M. fragrans, from Mexico, is le stout and clammy, and is sometimes cultivated for its showy flowers, which are reddish or violet-purple, streaked with yellow, and exhale a fragrance like that of vanilla. Martynieæ (mär-ti-ni'ē-ē), n. pl. [NL. (Bentham and Hooker, 1876), martyr (mär'ter), v. t. [ The primitive Christians before the face of their enemies would acknowledge no other title but that, though hated, reviled, tormented, martyred for it. Bp. Pearson , Expos. of Creed, ii. ( Latham .) 21. To put to death for any cause; destroy, as in revenge or retaliation; torture. To mete hym in the mountes, and martyre hys knyghtes, Stryke theme doune in strates and struye theme fore evere. Morte Arthure (E. E. T. S.), 1. 560. Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you: This one hand yet is left to cut your throats. Shak ., Tit. And., v. 2. 181. 3. To persecute as a martyr; afflict; despoil; IMG:content-0281.png:[graphic] torment. Me and wrecched Palamoun That These us martyreth in prisoun. Chaucer , Knight's Tale, 1. 704. The lovely Amoret, whose gentle hart Thou martyr est with sorow and with smart. Spenser, F. Q., IV. vii. 2.