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any plant belonging to the genus Aconitum, of the buttercup family, having irregular flowers usually in loose clusters, including species with poisonous and medicinal properties.
Historical Examples

In medicine and materia medica, the plant aconitum Napellus (which see).
Cooley’s Cyclopdia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades…, Sixth Edition, Volume I Arnold Cooley

Of aconitum ferox they report that it yields a comparatively large quantity of Pseudaconitine and a small quantity of Aconitine.
Cooley’s Cyclopdia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades…, Sixth Edition, Volume I Arnold Cooley

See aconitum Napellus; under which article will be found engravings of the two roots.
Cooley’s Cyclopdia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades…, Sixth Edition, Volume I Arnold Cooley

It is the aconitum of medicine, the Monk’s-hood or Wolf’s-bane’ of our ancestors.
The Woman-Hater Charles Reade

The root of the aconitum napellus becomes innocuous in frigid climates.
The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2) Charles Darwin

aconitum napellus, roots of, innocuous in cold climates, ii.
The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2) Charles Darwin

Monkshood (aconitum Napellus) grows four feet high, and has a beautiful blossom of rich blue growing in quite large clusters.
A Woman’s Hardy Garden Helena Rutherfurd Ely

The plants most limited were Papaveracea, aconitum folium aconitoideum, Saxif.
Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The William Griffith

An acid extracted by Peschier from aconitum napellus, and by Bracconnot from equisetum fluviatile.
Cooley’s Cyclopdia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades…, Sixth Edition, Volume I Arnold Cooley

Of these the most important is the aconitum ferox, a native of the Himalayan mountains, imported from India.
Poisons: Their Effects and Detection Alexander Wynter Blyth

noun
any of various N temperate plants of the ranunculaceous genus Aconitum, such as monkshood and wolfsbane, many of which are poisonous Compare winter aconite
the dried poisonous root of many of these plants, sometimes used as an antipyretic
n.

poisonous plant (also known as monkshood and wolf’s bane), 1570s, from French aconit, from Latin aconitum, from Greek akoniton, of unknown origin.

aconite ac·o·nite (āk’ə-nīt’)
n.
The dried poisonous root of various herbs of the genus Aconitum containing aconitine, used externally as an analgesic.