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 Nehemiah Adams

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 Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

Again the speckled trunks of the balm poplars struck my eye, now interspersed with the scarlet stems of the red osier dogwood.

From Over Prairie Trails by Frederick Philip Grove

For damp ground there is no better shrub than the red osier dogwood.

From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Science in Rural Schools by Ontario. Ministry of Education

The immediate shores were also densely covered with the speckled alder, red osier, shrubby willows or sallows, and the like.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 08, June 1858 by Various