red osier

American  

noun

1. Also called red-osier dogwood.  a North American dogwood, Cornus sericea (orC. stolonifera ), having red twigs and branches and white fruits.

2. any willow having reddish twigs and branches used for basketry or wickerwork.

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red osier British  

noun

1. any of several willow trees that have red twigs used for basketwork

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Etymology

Origin of red osier

An Americanism dating back to 1800–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

red osier

He brought in an openwork, red osier basket, with a dozen and a half of eggs in it, laid on cotton batting, each egg as duly inscribed as the specimens of a mineralogist.

From Bertha and Her Baptism by Adams, Nehemiah

Here also grew the red osier, its large fruit now whitish.

From Canoeing in the wilderness by Thoreau, Henry David

There grew the beaked hazel, rue seven feet high, and red osier, whose bark the Indian said was good to smoke, "tobacco before white people came to this country, Indian tobacco."

From Canoeing in the wilderness by Thoreau, Henry David

From my own pasture fence-line will come red osier, dogwood, with its white blooms, its blue berries, its winter stem-coloring, and elderberry.

From How To Write Special Feature Articles A Handbook for Reporters, Correspondents and Free-Lance Writers Who Desire to Contribute to Popular Magazines and Magazine Sections of Newspapers by Bleyer, Willard Grosvenor

Before I had done with it my ribs showed through my skin and my back was like a red osier basket.

From The Lady of Blossholme by Haggard, Henry Rider