withy
Americannoun
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withies
plural
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a willow.
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a pliable branch or twig, especially a withe.
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a band, loop, halter, or rope of slender twigs; widdy.
adjective
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made of pliable branches or twigs, especially of withes.
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flexible; pliable.
noun
adjective
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(of people) tough and agile
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rare resembling a withe in strength or flexibility
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of withy
before 1000; Middle English; Old English wīthig; akin to withe, Old Norse vīthir, Old High German wīda, Greek ītéa willow, Latin vītis vine
Vocabulary lists containing withy
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 HCA estimates the number of professional withy pot-makers is now in single figures and those who remain use it as a sideline to their main income.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2020
“Seismicity is a feature of mining in the region and deep-level mining layouts and support systems have been designed specifically to cope withy seismicity,” Neal Froneman said in a presentation to investors.
From Reuters ● Jun. 7, 2018
With a wire there is little risk of that; but then the withy does not cut its way into the fish.
From The Gamekeeper At Home Sketches of Natural History and Rural Life by Richard Jefferies
We then tried a corner where two of these large mounds, meeting, formed a small copse in which grew a quantity of withy and the thick grasses that always border the stoles.
From The Amateur Poacher by Richard Jefferies
VIDAR, a tree; wood; and prob. also weed and withy.
From The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson by Saemund Sigfusson
The sculptures were woven from willow withies at Martin’s workshop in Devon, where he created the work in sections.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2023
Finally, we came upon this man's workshop, and the withies were fabulous.
From Time Magazine Archive
The withies of which the baskets are made were at first, doubtless, the shoots of the willows found growing wild along the streams.
From Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely by Edward Conybeare
One of them carried a great bundle of withies, and Raleigh asked him what they were for.
From Raleigh by Andrew Lang
At the top the pillars were bound together by a circular hoop of withies.
From Pioneers in Canada by E. Wallcousins
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.
