wattle

 

 

 

 

From Middle English wattel, watel, from Old English watel, watul (“hurdle”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, wind, bend”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒtl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: wŏtʹl, IPA^(key): /ˈwɑtl̩/, [ˈwɑ.ɾl̩]
• Rhymes: -ɒtəl
• Homophone: what'll (UK, wine–whine merger)

wattle (countable and uncountable, plural wattles)

1. A construction of branches and twigs woven together to form a wall, barrier, fence, or roof.
   • 1874, Alfred Tennyson, “The Holy Grail”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; VI), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 104:

     And there the heathen Prince, Arviragus, / Gave him an isle of marsh whereon to build; / And there he built with wattles from the marsh / A little lonely church in days of yore, […]

2. A single twig or rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.
3. A wrinkled fold of skin, sometimes brightly coloured, hanging from the neck of birds (such as chicken and turkey) and some lizards.
4. A barbel of a fish.
5. A decorative fleshy appendage on the neck of a goat.
6. Loose hanging skin in the neck of a person.
   • 2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa:

     The buttons below his waddle open to reveal a ruddy V, tidemark of the sun.

7. Any of several Australian trees and shrubs of the genus Acacia, or their bark, used in tanning, seen as a national emblem of Australia.
   • 1901, “Progress in the Fruit Industry of Queensland”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record‎^[1], volume 4, page 16:

     The tents and sheets are made of the best Canadian duck, tanned for the purpose of preservation with a strong extract of iron-bark and wattle-bark.

• (skin on head of birds): caruncle, comb, cockscomb, crest, snood

wattle (third-person singular simple present wattles, present participle wattling, simple past and past participle wattled)

1. (transitive) To construct a wattle, or make a construction of wattles.
2. (transitive) To bind with wattles or twigs.

•   wattle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia