wattle
Americannoun
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wattles
plural
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Often wattles. a number of rods or stakes interwoven with twigs or tree branches for making fences, walls, etc.
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wattles, a number of poles laid on a roof to hold thatch.
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(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.
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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)
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wattles,
present (3rd person singular)
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wattled,
past participle, past
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wattling
present participle
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to bind, wall, fence, etc., with wattle or wattles.
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to roof or frame with or as if with wattles.
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to form into a basketwork; interweave; interlace.
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to make or construct by interweaving twigs or branches.
to wattle a fence.
adjective
noun
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a frame of rods or stakes interwoven with twigs, branches, etc, esp when used to make fences
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the material used in such a construction
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a loose fold of skin, often brightly coloured, hanging from the neck or throat of certain birds, lizards, etc
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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 fences See also golden wattle
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a southern African caesalpinaceous tree, Peltophorum africanum, with yellow flowers
verb
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to construct from wattle
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to bind or frame with wattle
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to weave or twist (branches, twigs, etc) into a frame
adjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wattlesimple
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wattlessimple
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have wattledperfect
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has wattledperfect
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am wattlingprogressive
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are wattlingprogressive
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is wattlingprogressive
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have been wattlingperfect progressive
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has been wattlingperfect progressive
Past
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wattledsimple
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had wattledperfect
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was wattlingprogressive
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were wattlingprogressive
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had been wattlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
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
Vocabulary lists containing wattle
Animals (Zoology) - Middle School
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Animals (Zoology) - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In comparison, carbon-capture plantations are usually monocultures and are dominated globally by just five tree species -- teak, mahogany, cedar, silk oak, and black wattle -- that are grown for timber, pulp, or agroforestry.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2023
The seasonal link between, say, a wattle flowering and the arrival of fish species is breaking down.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2022
Other species making use of color for courtship include the fan-throated lizard, with a wattle of iridescent blue and orange, and the Siamese fighting fish, its tail bristling with blood-orange finnage.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2020
A 25-foot wattle that’s nine inches in diameter costs about $150 at home improvement stores.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 5, 2020
So many weeks we spent cutting trees, splitting clapboard, tying thatch, making wattle and daub.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Titled “Immersion,” Clarke’s artwork is made of plywood paths set against straw wattles, with the coiled straw nodding to Cahuilla basket weaving traditions.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2023
Jones said the hen — which has brown feathers and a red comb and wattles — is believed to be a Rhode Island red.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 2, 2022
Jones said the hen - which has brown feathers and a red comb and wattles - is believed to be a Rhode Island red.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 2, 2022
Think of staying resolute: Think of orange wattles in an orange suit.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 13, 2018
Nels Gudmundsson raised his chin, fingered his bow tie, and pinched experimentally the wattles of skin at his neck—a habit of his when he was thinking.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
Although I suppose if either was your cousin, while you’d be portrayed as mad and wattled, the portrait would be worth millions.
From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2021
Our near silence left undisturbed an African jacana, whose long toes enable it to spread its weight over floating lily pads, and a rare pair of wattled cranes—birds that stand almost 6 feet tall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2015
Skirmishes between lovers and haters of the wattled invaders have existed since the ducks made their way here from South and Central America.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 13, 2015
Although I suppose if either was your cousin, while you'd be portrayed as mad and wattled, the portrait would be worth millions.
From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2014
The houses were wattled, and plastered over with clay; and all the furniture and utensils were of wood.
From Knowledge is Power: A View of the Productive Forces of Modern Society and the Results of Labor, Capital and Skill. by Charles Knight
A bacon bouse of two-score ribs, A wattling of tripe—support of clans— Of every food pleasant to man, Meseemed the whole was gathered there.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
The village, which had been started only a year or two, was laid out in the characteristic Mormon style with wide streets and regular lots fenced by wattling willows between stakes.
From A Canyon Voyage The Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition down the Green-Colorado River from Wyoming, and the Explorations on Land, in the Years 1871 and 1872 by Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh
Perturbéd at dews that drip from dome As wattling apes their horrors groan, The witch forsakes each glozing gnome, Affrighted at this gurgling vale.
From Betelguese A Trip Through Hell by Jean de Esque
From Palesh we started with fine weather for Skela, through a beautifully wooded park, some fields being here and there inclosed with wattling.
From Servia, Youngest Member of the European Family or, A Residence in Belgrade and Travels in the Highlands and Woodlands of the Interior, during the years 1843 and 1844. by Andrew Archibald Paton
The wires should be made fast to the pickets after the wattling is done.
From Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by James A. (James Alfred) Moss
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
