ergot Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a plant disease caused by the ergot fungus
  2. noun a fungus that infects various cereal plants forming compact black masses of branching filaments that replace many grains of the plant; source of medicinally important alkaloids and of lysergic acid
    Claviceps purpurea.

WordNet

Er"got noun
Etymology
F. ergot, argot, lit., a spur.
Definitions
  1. A diseased condition of rye and other cereals, in which the grains become black, and often spur-shaped. It is caused by a parasitic fungus, Claviceps purpurea.
  2. The mycelium or spawn of this fungus infecting grains of rye and wheat. It is a powerful remedial agent, and also a dangerous poison, and is used as a means of hastening childbirth, and to arrest bleeding.
  3. (Far.) A stub, like soft horn, about the size of a chestnut, situated behind and below the pastern joint.
  4. (Anat.) See 2d Calcar, 3 (b).

Webster 1913