poisonous drug derived from an Eurasian plant of the genus Conium
<noun.substance> Socrates refused to flee and died by drinking hemlock
large branching biennial herb native to Eurasia and Africa and adventive in North America having large fernlike leaves and white flowers; usually found in damp habitats; all parts extremely poisonous
<noun.plant>
soft coarse splintery wood of a hemlock tree especially the western hemlock
<noun.plant>
an evergreen tree
<noun.plant>
Hemlock \Hem"lock\, n. [OE. hemeluc, humloc, AS. hemlic, hymlic.] 1. (Bot.) The name of several poisonous umbelliferous herbs having finely cut leaves and small white flowers, as the {Cicuta maculata}, {Cicuta bulbifera}, and {Cicuta virosa}, and the {Conium maculatum}. See {Conium}.
Note: The potion of hemlock administered to Socrates is by some thought to have been a decoction of {Cicuta virosa}, or water hemlock, by others, of {Conium maculatum}.
2. (Bot.) An evergreen tree common in North America ({Abies Canadensis} or {Tsuga Canadensis}); hemlock spruce.
The murmuring pines and the hemlocks. --Longfellow.
3. The wood or timber of the hemlock tree.
{Ground hemlock}, or {Dwarf hemlock}. See under {Ground}.
Rather than jointly devise a diabolical master plan for the world, Mr. Puzo's Socrates Club members would more likely serve each other hemlock.
The first nest ever reported in Washington of a bird called a marbled murrelet has been found in old-growth hemlock, cheering ornithologists and stirring new questions about logging of old-growth forests.