1. The seed of flax, linseed.
1562. Act 5 Eliz., c. 5 § 29. One Rood … is limited to be sown with Linseed otherwise Flaxseed or Hempseed.
16[?]. L. Delaware, in Child, Ballads, VII. 314.
| And without delay I’ll hie me to Lincolnshire, | |
| To sow hemp-seed and flax-seed, and hang them all there. |
1737. Berkeley, Let., Wks. 1871, IV. 248. It is hoped your flax-seed will come in time.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade., Flax-seed, the boll of flax, generally termed linseed.
b. The plant Radiola Millegrana, the seed-pods of which are similar to those of the flax plant; cf. ALLSEED c.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 289. Radiola millegrana, Flax-seed, grows in similar situations, and attains an equal elevation.
2. A name given to the pupa of the Hessian fly from its resemblance to a flax-seed. U.S.
1886. Times, 18 Aug., 10/6. Pupæ … resembling small and rather elongated flax seeds. On this account they are called ‘flax seeds’ in America.
1888. Riverside Nat. Hist., II. 410. The larvæ [of the Hessian fly] that are hatched in April, in a few weeks, or by the latter part of June, assume the pupa state, called the flaxseed stage; the larval skin becomes firmer and brown, enclosing the true pupa, and in size is like a grain of rice.
3. attrib. and Comb. (sense 1), as flax-seed mill, oil; flaxseed ore = dyestone ore: see DYESTONE.
1831. J. Davies, Manual Mat. Med., 71. Flaxseed oil.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 881/2. Flax-seed Mill. One for grinding flax-seed for the more ready abstraction of the oil, generally known as linseed (lint, flax) oil.
