THATCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Thatch mean? 

• THATCH (noun)
  The noun THATCH has 4 senses:

1. hair resembling thatched roofing material

2. plant stalks used as roofing material

3. an English pirate who operated in the Caribbean and off the Atlantic coast of North America (died in 1718)

4. a house roof made with a plant material (as straw)

  Familiarity information: THATCH used as a noun is uncommon.

• THATCH (verb)
  The verb THATCH has 1 sense:

1. cover with thatch

  Familiarity information: THATCH used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THATCH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hair resembling thatched roofing material

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("thatch" is a kind of...):

coif; coiffure; hair style; hairdo; hairstyle (the arrangement of the hair (especially a woman's hair))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Plant stalks used as roofing material

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("thatch" is a kind of...):

roofing material (building material used in constructing roofs)

Derivation:

thatch (cover with thatch)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An English pirate who operated in the Caribbean and off the Atlantic coast of North America (died in 1718)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Blackbeard; Edward Teach; Edward Thatch; Teach; Thatch

Instance hypernyms:

buccaneer; pirate; sea robber; sea rover (someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A house roof made with a plant material (as straw)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

thatch; thatched roof

Hypernyms ("thatch" is a kind of...):

roof (a protective covering that covers or forms the top of a building)

Derivation:

thatch (cover with thatch)

• THATCH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they thatch    ... he / she / it thatches   
Past simple: thatched   
Past participle: thatched   
-ing form: thatching   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover with thatch

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

thatch the roofs

Hypernyms (to "thatch" is one way to...):

roof (provide a building with a roof; cover a building with a roof)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

thatch (a house roof made with a plant material (as straw))

thatch (plant stalks used as roofing material)

thatcher (someone skilled in making a roof from plant stalks or foliage)

 Context examples 

Is it not a by-word that a man may ride all day in that unhappy land without seeing thatch upon roof or hearing the crow of cock?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The thatch had fallen in, the walls were unplastered, and the door was off its hinges.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

"Communities rely on forest resources such as firewood, thatch for roofs, and plants for food and medicine."

(Land cover change in Botswana savannas: Don't blame the elephants, National Science Foundation)

His lips trembled a little, so that the rough thatch of brown hair which covered them was visibly agitated. His tongue even strayed out to moisten them.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“Let us gather tundra grass and thatch the roof,” Maud said.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His heavily thatched eyebrows covered quick, furtive grey eyes, and his gaunt features were hollowed at the cheek and temple like water-grooved flint.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The farmhouses were my delight, with thatched roofs, ivy up to the eaves, latticed windows, and stout women with rosy children at the doors.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Then I came to a long thicket of these oaklike trees—live, or evergreen, oaks, I heard afterwards they should be called—which grew low along the sand like brambles, the boughs curiously twisted, the foliage compact, like thatch.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I propped my eyelids open with my two forefingers, and looked perseveringly at her as she sat at work; at the little bit of wax-candle she kept for her thread—how old it looked, being so wrinkled in all directions!—at the little house with a thatched roof, where the yard-measure lived; at her work-box with a sliding lid, with a view of St. Paul's Cathedral (with a pink dome) painted on the top; at the brass thimble on her finger; at herself, whom I thought lovely.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Yet even without knowing his brilliant record one could not fail to be impressed by a mere glance at the man, the square, massive face, the brooding eyes under the thatched brows, and the granite moulding of the inflexible jaw.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)