ergot: Meaning and Definition of

er•got

Pronunciation: (ûr'gut, -got), [key]
— n.
    1. a disease of rye and other cereal grasses, caused by a fungus of the genus Claviceps, esp. C. purpurea, which replaces the affected grain with a long, hard, blackish sclerotial body.
    2. the sclerotial body itself.
  1. the dried sclerotium of C. purpurea, developed on rye plants: used in the production of ergotamine and ergotoxine.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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