bastard slip
A gardener carefully removes a bastard slip from the base of the mother plant.
Definition
- Noun (Botany):
- A root shoot or offshoot: "bastard slip" refers to a shoot or sucker that grows from the root of a plant, often considered a wild or unwanted growth that is not part of the main cultivated stem. It is typically used in horticulture to describe a spontaneous, uncultivated plantlet.
Usage Examples
- (A root shoot that was interfering with the plant's main growth.)
- (An offshoot indicating poor conditions.)
Advanced Usage
"to cut a bastard slip": to prune away a root shoot to control plant growth.
- He carefully cut the bastard slip from the base of the apple tree. (He removed the unwanted sucker.)
"bastard slip as a metaphor": In rare, figurative use, the term can imply something illegitimate or unexpected.
- The project was a bastard slip of the original plan, appearing without approval. (An unintended or unplanned development.)
Variants and Related Words
Bastard (adj/n): (in botany) of a plant or shoot that is not true to type; also used generally for something illegitimate or inferior.
- The bastard variety of the flower produced smaller blooms. (A hybrid or off-type.)
Slip (n): a small shoot or cutting taken from a plant for propagation.
- She took a slip from the geranium to grow a new plant. (A cutting used for planting.)
Synonyms
- Sucker: a shoot that grows from the root or lower stem of a plant.
- Offshoot: a new growth from the main plant.
- Root shoot: a shoot emerging from the root system.
Related Idioms
- "bastard slip of nature": (rare, literary) a phrase describing something unnatural or out of place.
- The mutant flower was considered a bastard slip of nature. (An unusual or aberrant growth.)
Phrasal Verbs
- (None directly associated with "bastard slip". The term is a noun phrase and does not form phrasal verbs. However, the verb "to slip" can mean to take a cutting: )