hemlock. Tennyson says in The Princess, “Though the rough kex break the starred mosaic,” though weeds break the pavement. Nothing breaks a pavement like the growth of grass or lichen through it. (Welsh, cecys, hemlock; French, ciguë; Latin, cicuta.)
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.