flower

April showers bring May flowers

proverb Poor, often rainy weather in April can prove beneficial to blooming plant life in May. A: "Ugh, will it ever stop raining?" B: "April showers bring may flowers, at least."
See also: bring, flower, may, shower

flower

1. The best example or greatest representative of a group. Margaret was long considered the flower of her graduating class.
2. The best state or prime condition of something. It was in the flower of my youth that I knew I wanted to be a great writer.
3. slang The vagina, especially the labia majora and the labia minora.
4. slang An effeminate, weak, ineffectual, or cowardly man or boy. Don't be such a flower, Jimmy, stand up for yourself and fight him!
5. A term of endearment, often toward a girl or woman. Primarily heard in UK, Ireland. Ah, my little flower! Come here and give your auntie a kiss! Here you are, me auld flower, two tickets to the show, as promised!

flower of the flock

The best person or thing in a group. Your cupcakes are just the flower of the flock—there is no better item at the bake sale. She's the best we've got, the flower of the flock, so you should absolutely put her on this case.
See also: flock, flower, of

hearts and flowers

A phrase used to describe excessive sentimentality. Ugh, but the dialogue in those books is all hearts and flowers though.
See also: and, flower, heart

let a hundred flowers bloom

A phrase used by Chinese head of state Mao Zedong in 1956 to allow criticism of the Chinese government. Primarily heard in Ireland. For how long after Mao Zedong urged people to "let a hundred flowers bloom" was criticism actually accepted?
See also: bloom, flower, hundred, let

the flower of (something)

The finest, most vital, or most exemplary part of something. Though many worry the legislation will hamper trade with foreign countries, I'm hopeful that it will help nurture and cultivate the flower of local industries. The community has been struggling to come to terms with the death of the three boys, all struck down in the flower of youth.
See also: flower, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

April showers bring May flowers.

Prov. Although rain in April is annoying, it starts the flowers growing. Child: I hate all this rain. Why does it have to rain? Mother: April showers bring May flowers. Although it was a dreary, rainy day, we felt cheerful, since April showers bring May flowers.
See also: bring, flower, may, shower
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

the flower of —

the finest individuals out of a number of people or things.
Middle and early modern English did not recognize the modern distinction in spelling and sense between flower and flour , and the earliest instances of this expression relate to the sense that in modern English would be spelt flour , referring to the finest part of the wheat.
1991 Pat Robertson New World Order This vainglorious conqueror wasted the flower of French youth on his own personal dreams of empire.
See also: flower, of

hearts and flowers

used in allusion to extreme sentimentality.
See also: and, flower, heart
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

the flower of something

(literary) the finest or best part of something: The people of the village will never forget the war and their young men, killed in the flower of youth.
See also: flower, of, something
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

hearts and flowers

n. sentimentality. I didn’t care for the hearts and flowers part.
See also: and, flower, heart
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

April showers bring May flowers

Adversity is followed by good fortune. An old proverb, it was taken more literally in days gone by, and in fact it appeared in a British book of Weather Lore published in 1893.
See also: bring, flower, may, shower

flower children

Hippies of the 1960s, so named because they frequently wore or carried flowers as symbols of love and peace. Their antimaterialistic, antiwar philosophy was characterized as flower power, whose motto was “Make love, not war.” Overused for several decades, these terms now may be dying out.
See also: children, flower

flower of youth, the

The best or finest time of life, at the peak of good looks, good health, and vigor. “He hath the flower of youth, wherein is the fulness of strength,” wrote Homer in the Iliad (ca. 850 b.c.). Shakespeare used similar language, but not the precise wording of the cliché. But John Dryden did, in Alexander’s Feast (1697), describing the lovely Thais “in flow’r of youth and beauty’s pride.”
See also: flower, of
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • April showers bring May flowers
  • paint thinner
  • paint remover
  • infatuated
  • be infatuated with (someone or something)
  • become infatuated with (someone or something)
  • thirsty
  • be on (one's) back
  • be on somebody's back
  • be on someone's back
References in classic literature
What would the green earth be without its lovely flowers, and what a lonely home for us!
"I will bear only a garland of our fairest flowers; these will I wind about him, and their bright faces, looking lovingly in his, will bring sweet thoughts to his dark mind, and their soft breath steal in like gentle words.
Flower Fables
THE FLOWER GIRL [taking advantage of the military gentleman's proximity to establish friendly relations with him].
THE FLOWER GIRL [disappointed, but thinking three halfpence better than nothing] Thank you, sir.
Pygmalion
They now came upon more and more of the big scarlet poppies, and fewer and fewer of the other flowers; and soon they found themselves in the midst of a great meadow of poppies.
But the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, not being made of flesh, were not troubled by the scent of the flowers.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
So in the evening he appeared at the ball in his golden cloak; but before the entertainment was over he slipped away, and went straight to the stables, where he mounted his foal and rode out into the meadow to wait for the Flower Queen's daughter.
When the Flower Queen heard that her daughter wanted to marry the Prince, she said to him: 'I will give my consent to your marriage gladly, but my daughter can only stay with you in summer.
Yellow Fairy Book
The frightened cats, having alighted on the ground, first tried to fly each in a different direction, until the string by which they were tied together was tightly stretched across the bed; then, however, feeling that they were not able to get off, they began to pull to and fro, and to wheel about with hideous caterwaulings, mowing down with their string the flowers among which they were struggling, until, after a furious strife of about a quarter of an hour, the string broke and the combatants vanished.
By the next year he had obtained flowers of a perfect nut-brown, and Boxtel espied them in the border, whereas he had himself as yet only succeeded in producing the light brown.
The Black Tulip
And this would be generally observed, that the borders wherein you plant your fruit-trees, be fair and large, and low, and not steep; and set with fine flowers, but thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees.
The Essays
Thou hast bound many eyes In a dreamy sleep - But the strains still arise Which thy vigilance keep - The sound of the rain Which leaps down to the flower, And dances again In the rhythm of the shower -
NOTHING earthly save the ray(Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty's eye, As in those gardens where the day Springs from the gems of Circassy - O !
Poems
"That's much more interesting than real flowers! They are as exact as possible; there i not a fault in them, if they did not melt!"
Andersens Fairy Tales
To spare my friend further pain, I rose to go, just as the Earl was beginning to repeat his particularly embarrassing question about the flowers.
Sylvie and Bruno