1. A fungus (Claviceps purpurea) that infects various cereal plants and forms compact black masses of branching filaments that replace many of the grains of the host plant.
2. the disease caused by such a fungus.
3. the dried sclerotia of ergot, usually obtained from rye seed and used as a source of several medicinally important alkaloids and as the basic source of lysergic acid.

1. any fungus in the genus Claviceps which are parasitic on grasses.
2. the sclerotium (wintering stage) of certain fungi in the genus Claviceps, appearing as a deformed grain in certain cereals and grasses infected by the fungi.

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. A stub, like soft horn, about the size of a chestnut, situated behind and below the pastern joint.
4. see 2d calcar, 3 (b).

1. to infer; arrive at.
2. to draw conclusions.
3. in farriery, a stub, like a piece of soft horn, of about the size of a chestnut, situated behind and below the pastern-joint, and commonly hidden under the tuft of the fetlock.
4. A morbid growth arising from a diseased condition of the ovary of various grasses, caused by a fungus of the genus Claviceps.
5. in anatomy, the calcar. spur, or hippocampus minor of the brain.

1. 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
2. a plant disease caused by the ergot fungus