Definition of "heath"

heath

/hiːθ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural heaths
1. A tract of level uncultivated land with sandy soil and scrubby vegetation; heathland.
  Quotations
  1. Where the place?/2. Vpon the Heath/3. There to meet with Macbeth
  c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]
2. Any small evergreen shrub of the family Ericaceae.
  Quotations
  There was nobody living in Jim's old house, and some of the windows was broken; but there was heath growing back and front.
  1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 258
  1. Many of the species in the genus Erica
  2. Many of the species in the genus Cassiope
  3. Both species in the genus Daboecia
  4. Any of the species in the genus Epacris, Australian heath
  5. Any of the species in the genus Leucopogon, beard heath
  6. Any of the species in the genus Phyllodoce, mountain heath
3. (countable) Certain butterflies and moths
  1. The palearctic species of Coenonympha, a genus of brush-footed butterfly
    Coenonympha pamphilus, native to Europe, Asia except tropical India and Indochina, and Northern Africa, the small heath
    Coenonympha tullia, native to Europe, Asia except tropical India and Indochina, and North America, the large heath
  2. Melitaea athalia, the heath fritillary
  3. Semiothisa clathrata, a moth known as the latticed heath
  4. Ematurga atomaria, the common heath