wattle
Americannoun
-
wattles
plural
-
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)
-
wattles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wattled,
past participle, past
-
wattling
present participle
-
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
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 fences See also golden wattle
-
a southern African caesalpinaceous tree, Peltophorum africanum, with yellow flowers
verb
-
to construct from wattle
-
to bind or frame with wattle
-
to weave or twist (branches, twigs, etc) into a frame
adjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wattlesimple
-
wattlessimple
-
have wattledperfect
-
has wattledperfect
-
am wattlingprogressive
-
are wattlingprogressive
-
is wattlingprogressive
-
have been wattlingperfect progressive
-
has been wattlingperfect progressive
Past
-
wattledsimple
-
had wattledperfect
-
was wattlingprogressive
-
were wattlingprogressive
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Animals (Zoology) - High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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
Over time, they expanded the city with landfill and planted crops on floating gardens called chinampas, plots of arable soil created from wattle and sediment.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2017
It makes the stone houses drip and the wattle and daub houses look soggy.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Crews have already covered the fragile area with 4,500 linear feet of wattles, long tubes whose natural fibers hold soil in place, the National Park Service said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
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
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
“It’s realism on top, see,” he says as he shows off the ceramic lid with a perfect, proud chicken head, the comb, the wattles, the puffed breast.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 25, 2019
He let her scold, shake her wattles at him.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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
When the posts of a fort were wattled six inches apart, it was comparatively easy for the defenders to shoot through cracks in the wattling.
From Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century by Henry Chandlee Forman
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 wattling is randed or slewed from the form up.
From Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by James A. (James Alfred) Moss
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
Much finer willow-wands are used to wattle, or weave, the basket-work; ribs of split osiers are added, and the wattling goes in and out among them, and at once secures them and rests upon them.
From Miscellanea by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
