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
The women all stayed in the wattle huts, peering out the door, hiding their children behind their skirts, drawing back fearfully into the darkness of the huts as the strangers came up from the beach.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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
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
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
Payo’s red comb and wattles shake as he jerks his head around like a robot and stares at his visitors.
From Washington Times ● May 28, 2018
He was an old man in suspenders, one useless eye wandering loose in its socket, poorly shaven wattles of skin at his throat—raw, chafed, and pinkish folds with sparse silver bristles poking out of them.
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
In Saxo the floor of the house consists of serpents wattled together, and the roof of sharp stings.
From Teutonic Mythology, Vol. 1 of 3 Gods and Goddesses of the Northland by Ph.D.
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 term wattling is applied to such constructions as employ by interlacing, plaiting, etc., somewhat heavy, rigid, or slightly pliable parts, as rods, boughs, canes, and vines.
From Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896 pages 3-46 by William Henry Holmes
These trees were first called wattles from being used by the early settlers for forming a network or wattling of the supple twigs as a substitute for laths in plastering houses.
From Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by William Saunders
If the brush is small, uniform, and pliable, pairing will make a better wattling than randing.
From Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by James A. (James Alfred) Moss
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.
