iris Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and three drooping sepals
    flag; sword lily; fleur-de-lis.
  2. noun muscular diaphragm that controls the size of the pupil which in turn controls the amount of light that enters the eye; it forms the colored portion of the eye
  3. noun diaphragm consisting of thin overlapping plates that can be adjusted to change the diameter of a central opening
    iris diaphragm.

WordNet

I"ris noun
Etymology
L. iris, iridis, the goddess, Gr. , , the rainbow, iris of the eye, the plant Iris. Cf. Orris.
Wordforms
plural E Irises L Irides
Definitions
  1. (Class. Myth.) The goddess of the rainbow, and swift-footed messenger of the gods. Shak.
  2. The rainbow. Sir T. Browne.
  3. An appearance resembling the rainbow; a prismatic play of colors. Tennyson.
  4. (Anat.) The contractile membrane perforated by the pupil, and forming the colored portion of the eye. See Eye.
  5. (Bot.) A genus of plants having showy flowers and bulbous or tuberous roots, of which the flower-de-luce (fleur-de-lis), orris, and other species of flag are examples. See Illust. of Flower-de-luce.
  6. (Her.) See Fleur-de-lis, 2.

Webster 1913