honeydew

Definition

A sweet, sticky substance deposited on leaves and other plant parts by insects (especially aphids and scale insects) feeding on plant sap, or by fungi.

Etymology

The noun is derived from honey + dew, originally believed to be a form of dew that fell from the sky like rain onto plants (see sense 1). The adjective is derived from the noun.

Example Sentences

• "[T]here reſteth on the leaves of this tree a kinde of red thicke dew in the hotteſt time of Summer more then on any other tree round about it, which will be rather dry then bedewed at all, which honey dew being taken doth ſlake the thirſt wonderfully: […]"
• "[F]reſh teares / Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honie devv, / Vpon a gathred Lillie almoſt vvithered."
• "In India, and eſpecially in the region of the Praſians, it raineth many times a dew like liquid hony falling vppon the hearbs and graſſe of the earth: wherefore the ſhepheards lead their flocks vnto thoſe places, wherwithal their cattle are much delighted, and ſuch as is the food they eat, ſuch alſo is the taſt of the milke they render; […] Such a kind of dew the Hæbrewes call Manna, the Græcians Aeromelos, and Droſomelos: The Germaines Himmelhung: and in Engliſh Honny-dew: […]"