wattle and daub

American  

noun

1. Also wattle and dab a building technique employing wattles plastered with clay and mud.

2. a form of wall construction consisting of upright posts or stakes interwoven with twigs or tree branches and plastered with a mixture of clay and straw.

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wattle and daub British  

noun

1. 1. a form of wall construction consisting of interwoven twigs plastered with a mixture of clay, lime, water, and sometimes dung and chopped straw

   2. ( as modifier )

      a wattle-and-daub hut

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Etymology

Origin of wattle and daub

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

Other walls are made of wattle and daub, a mixture of mud, clay, and straw stuck onto a woven frame.

From BBC • Jul. 4, 2013

Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe for the Guardian When she was a child living in a Tudor cottage in rural Cheshire, the walls were lumpy, and badly painted, wattle and daub.

From The Guardian • May 18, 2013

In the hamlet of Lakwèv near the border with the Dominican Republic, about 50 families live in mostly dirt-floored wattle and daub huts.

From The Guardian • May 30, 2012

Above and below the church were our dwelling places, some forty cottages and huts of wattle and daub, thatch and wood, dirt and mud, all in varying shades of brown.

From "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by Avi

So many weeks we spent cutting trees, splitting clapboard, tying thatch, making wattle and daub.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone