sagebrush

noun

sage·​brush ˈsāj-ˌbrəsh 

: any of several North American hoary composite subshrubs (genus Artemisia)

especially : one (A. tridentata) having a bitter juice and an odor resembling sage and often covering vast tracts of alkaline plains in the western U.S.

Examples of sagebrush in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Most of the plants growing at the nursery will be planted on the structure next year: native shrubs such as white sage, California fuchsia, California buckwheat, sagebrush, purple sage, black sage, toyon and laurel sumac, along with a variety of native grasses. —Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2024

Some major players are California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), black sage (Salvia mellifera), white sage (Salvia apiana), and California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum). —Kristin Guy, Sunset Magazine, 24 Oct. 2024

Imagine the best of California and Colorado wine countries combined into a single dreamscape of lakeside vineyards and orchards, with rolling foothills covered in sagebrush and pine set against a backdrop of arid mountain peaks. —Jayme Moye, Outside Online, 4 Oct. 2024

The complex was beset by scrubby clay slopes dotted with sagebrush, California aster, evergreen oaks. —Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

sagebrush

noun

sage·​brush ˈsāj-ˌbrəsh 

: any of several low shrubby North American plants related to the daisies

especially : a common plant with a bitter juice that smells like sage and is widespread on the plains of the western U.S.