Cress
Cress (kres) , noun
[Old English ces, cresse, kers, kerse, Anglo-Saxon cresse, cerse; akin to Dutch kers, German kresse, Danish karse, Swedish krasse, and possibly also to Old High German chresan to creep.]
(Botany) A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.
To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread.
The garden cress, called also peppergrass, is the Lepidium sativum; the water cress is the Nasturtium officinale. Various other plants are sometimes called cresses.
Collocations (2)
Bitter cress , See under Bitter.
Not worth a cress or “not worth a kers.” , a common old proverb, now turned into the meaningless “not worth a curse.” — Skeat