Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Wattle?

\Wat"tle\, n. 1. Material consisting of wattled twigs, withes, etc., used for walls, fences, and the like. ``The pailsade of wattle.'' --Frances Macnab. 2. (Bot.) In Australasia, any tree of the genus {Acacia}; -- so called from the wattles, or hurdles, which the early settlers made of the long, pliable branches or of the split stems of the slender species.
\Wat"tle\, n. [AS. watel, watul, watol, hurdle, covering, wattle; cf. OE. watel a bag. Cf. {Wallet}.] 1. A twig or flexible rod; hence, a hurdle made of such rods. And there he built with wattles from the marsh A little lonely church in days of yore. --Tennyson. 2. A rod laid on a roof to support the thatch. 3. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A naked fleshy, and usually wrinkled and highly colored, process of the skin hanging from the chin or throat of a bird or reptile. (b) Barbel of a fish. 4. (a) The astringent bark of several Australian trees of the genus {Acacia}, used in tanning; -- called also {wattle bark}. (b) (Bot.) The trees from which the bark is obtained. See {Savanna wattle}, under {Savanna}. {Wattle turkey}. (Zo["o]l.) Same as {Brush turkey}.
\Wat"tle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wattled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Wattling}.] 1. To bind with twigs. 2. To twist or interweave, one with another, as twigs; to form a network with; to plat; as, to wattle branches. 3. To form, by interweaving or platting twigs. The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes. --Milton.