hemlock

From Middle English hemlok, hemeluc, from Old English hemlīc, hymlīc m and hymlīce f (“hemlock, bryony, convolvulus”), of uncertain origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛmˌlɒk/

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hemlock (countable and uncountable, plural hemlocks)

1. Any of the poisonous umbelliferous plants, of the genera
   1. Conium, either Conium maculatum or Conium chaerophylloides.
      • 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:

        Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.

      • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 113:

        In the Tyrol, on May Day, it was the custom to smoke out witches by burning bundles of black and red spotted hemlock. In the eighteenth century hemlock was used for treating cancer, syphilis, and ulcers.

      • 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 41:

        There were bunches of wild garlic to keep out evil spirits, foxgloves for healing spells and hemlock and vervain for darker magic.

   2. Cicuta (water hemlock).
2. Poison obtained from these Conium and Cicuta plants. [from c. 1600]
4. Any of several coniferous trees, of the genus Tsuga, that grow in North America; the wood of such trees. [from 1670]
   • 2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 380:

     The wind blows and the hemlocks wave their feathery leading shoots. Such a graceful profile, so elegant a tree.

• (Conium):, devil's bread, devil's porridge, herb bennet, poison hemlock, poison parsley, Conium maculatum, Conium chaerophylloides
• (Cicuta): beaver poison, cowbane, musquash root, poison parsnip, spotted corobane, water hemlock