camomile

Everyday

1. A small plant with flowers like tiny daisies, white petals around a yellow middle, which has a sweet apple-like smell. tree →
2. A drink (camomile tea) made from the dried flowers, often drunk to feel calm or sleepy. tree →
3. In old times, a bitter medicine made from the plant. tree →

In the lessons

In everyday life it is mostly camomile tea, which people drink at bedtime. In science and gardening it is a herb. In Alice in Wonderland the Duchess's line is a joke about tastes and tempers: Alice thinks pepper makes people hot-tempered, vinegar sour, camomile bitter and barley-sugar sweet-tempered. Peter Rabbit's mother also gives him camomile tea when he is ill.

Examples

• Gran drinks a cup of camomile tea before bed. tree →
• Camomile flowers look like tiny daisies. tree →
• The garden smelled of camomile and mint. tree →
• Peter Rabbit was put to bed with camomile tea. tree →
• Alice said that camomile makes people bitter. tree →
• We dried camomile flowers for a science project. tree →
• Some people say camomile helps them relax. tree →
• The lawn was made of camomile instead of grass. tree →
• His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea; and she gave a dose of it to Peter! tree →

Note

Two spellings: camomile (UK) and chamomile (USA and many others); both are right. Say «CAM-uh-mile». Uncountable when it is the plant or tea: some camomile. A herb tea is not real tea from the tea bush.