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:
The logo depicted a red tulip and a golden wattle - the national flowers of Australia and Afghanistan - entwined around a cricket ball.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2025
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
The queen’s death on Sept. 8 came in the Southern Hemisphere spring when wattle blooms, its golden flowers and green leaves reflecting Australia’s national colors in what has become a symbol of unity.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 21, 2022
It makes the stone houses drip and the wattle and daub houses look soggy.
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
The feathered and fidgety duo settled into their new pens, their vibrant red wattles jiggling with every step, a stark contrast to their icy pale faces.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2022
Normally, turkeys top out around 20 pounds, with fleshy wattles that hang down their necks and another protuberance called a snood hanging over the beak.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 22, 2022
Crews were also placing straw tubing known as wattles along stream edges to prevent sediment from washing into the waterway amid rain or snowfall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2021
Someone’s rescued hen fluttered up to the bow of our boat and strutted placidly along the gunwale, its delicate wattles shaking as it plucked up ants.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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 palisades should be made of strong saplings, wattled together, say, ten feet high.
From A Roving Commission Or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
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
Similar effects have been produced by the erection of plank fences, and even of simple screens of wattling and reeds.
From The Earth as Modified by Human Action by George P. Marsh
Well, sir, I came to the first pitfall—and, lo and behold! something had been and taken the bait and got away with it without so much as putting a foot through the wattling.
From It, and Other Stories by Gouverneur Morris
The wattling is randed or slewed from the form up.
From Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by James A. (James Alfred) Moss
In the afternoon, the day being mild and sunny, there was a dance in the bowery,—a great arbour made of poles and brush and wattling.
From The Lions of the Lord A Tale of the Old West by Harry Leon Wilson
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.
