wattle

[ wot-l ]

/ ˈwɒt l /

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See synonyms for wattle on Thesaurus.com

noun

Often wattles. a number of rods or stakes interwoven with twigs or tree branches for making fences, walls, etc.

wattles, a number of poles laid on a roof to hold thatch.

(in Australia) any of various acacias whose shoots and branches were used by the early colonists for wattles, now valued especially for their bark, which is used in tanning.

a fleshy lobe or appendage hanging down from the throat or chin of certain birds, as the domestic chicken or turkey.

verb (used with object), wat·tled, wat·tling.

to bind, wall, fence, etc., with wattle or wattles.

to roof or frame with or as if with wattles.

to form into a basketwork; interweave; interlace.

to make or construct by interweaving twigs or branches: to wattle a fence.

adjective

built or roofed with wattle or wattles.

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Origin of wattle

before 900; (noun) Middle English wattel,Old English watul covering, akin to wætla bandage; (v.) Middle English wattelen, derivative of the noun

OTHER WORDS FROM wattle

un·wat·tled, adjective

Words nearby wattle

Wattenscheid, watter, Watterson, watt-hour, Watt, James, wattle, wattle and daub, wattlebird, wattless component, wattmeter, Watts

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use wattle in a sentence

Your value increases every year and for developing neck wattles that comfort small granddaughters.
Justine Bateman's Aging Face and Why She Doesn't Think It Needs 'Fixing'|Susanna Schrobsdorff|April 11, 2021|Time
Very little of the earlier buildings remained, as they all appear to have been built of wood and wattle-and-daub.
The Towns of Roman Britain|James Oliver Bevan
As for "wattle and daub" I could wish that it had never been invented.
Ten Books on Architecture|Vitruvius
I skulked in the scrub as he came up—just behind a clump of wattle.
Colonial Born|G. Firth Scott

The first man was formed out of the gum of a wattle-tree, and came out of the knot of a wattle-tree.
Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1|Andrew Lang
A boy pushed the bracken and ferny grey and green wattle sprays from before a lichen-grown wooden cross.
The Pioneers|Katharine Susannah Prichard

British Dictionary definitions for wattle (1 of 2)

wattle¹

/ (ˈwɒtəl) /

noun

a frame of rods or stakes interwoven with twigs, branches, etc, esp when used to make fences

the material used in such a construction

a loose fold of skin, often brightly coloured, hanging from the neck or throat of certain birds, lizards, etc

any of various chiefly Australian acacia trees having spikes of small brightly coloured flowers and flexible branches, which were used by early settlers for making fencesSee also golden wattle

a southern African caesalpinaceous tree, Peltophorum africanum, with yellow flowers

verb (tr)

to construct from wattle

to bind or frame with wattle

to weave or twist (branches, twigs, etc) into a frame

adjective

made of, formed by, or covered with wattle

Derived forms of wattle

wattled, adjective

Word Origin for wattle

Old English watol; related to wethel wrap, Old High German wadal, German Wedel

British Dictionary definitions for wattle (2 of 2)

wattle²

/ (ˈwɒtəl) /

adjective

Midland English dialect of poor quality

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

wattle

Origin of wattle

OTHER WORDS FROM wattle

Words nearby wattle

Words related to wattle

How to use wattle in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for wattle (1 of 2)

Derived forms of wattle

Word Origin for wattle

British Dictionary definitions for wattle (2 of 2)