wattle

[wot-l]

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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.

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

Related formsun·wat·tled, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for wattle

wall, roof, fence, gill

Examples from the Web for wattle

Historical Examples of wattle

It is built of oak framework, filled in with “wattle and daub.”
English Villages
P. H. Ditchfield
As for "wattle and daub" I could wish that it had never been invented.
Ten Books on Architecture
Vitruvius
The wattle hanging from the neck is of a light orange at the tip.
The Western World
W.H.G. Kingston
The walls of the dormitory were constructed in what is well known as "wattle and daub."
Prisoners Their Own Warders
J. F. A. McNair
For leave to sit by their wattle they demanded contributions of fuel.
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy

British Dictionary definitions for wattle

wattle

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 Formswattled, adjective

Word Origin for wattle

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

wattle

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

Word Origin and History for wattle

n.2

"fleshy appendage below the neck of certain birds," 1510s (extended jocularly to human beings, 1560s), of uncertain origin and of doubtful relationship to wattle (n.1).

n.1

"stakes interlaced with twigs and forming the framework of the wall of a building," Old English watol "hurdle," in plural "twigs, thatching, tiles," related to weðel "bandage," of unknown origin. Surviving in wattle-and-daub "building material for huts, etc." (1808).