WATTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wattle mean? 

• WATTLE (noun)
  The noun WATTLE has 3 senses:

1. a fleshy wrinkled and often brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat of certain birds (chickens and turkeys) or lizards

2. framework consisting of stakes interwoven with branches to form a fence

3. any of various Australasian trees yielding slender poles suitable for wattle

  Familiarity information: WATTLE used as a noun is uncommon.

• WATTLE (verb)
  The verb WATTLE has 2 senses:

1. build of or with wattle

2. interlace to form wattle

  Familiarity information: WATTLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WATTLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A fleshy wrinkled and often brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat of certain birds (chickens and turkeys) or lizards

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

lappet; wattle

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

caruncle; caruncula (an outgrowth on a plant or animal such as a fowl's wattle or a protuberance near the hilum of certain seeds)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Framework consisting of stakes interwoven with branches to form a fence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

frame; framework (a structure supporting or containing something)

Derivation:

wattle (interlace to form wattle)

wattle (build of or with wattle)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any of various Australasian trees yielding slender poles suitable for wattle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

acacia (any of various spiny trees or shrubs of the genus Acacia)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wattle"):

Acacia auriculiformis; black wattle (Australian tree that yields tanning materials)

Acacia cambegei; gidgee; stinking wattle (scrubby Australian acacia having extremely foul-smelling blossoms)

Acacia dealbata; mimosa; silver wattle (evergreen Australasian tree having white or silvery bark and young leaves and yellow flowers)

Acacia pycnantha; golden wattle (shrubby Australian tree having clusters of fragrant golden yellow flowers; widely cultivated as an ornamental)

• WATTLE (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Build of or with wattle

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

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

build; construct; make (make by combining materials and parts)

Domain category:

building; construction (the act of constructing something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

wattle (framework consisting of stakes interwoven with branches to form a fence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Interlace to form wattle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

enlace; entwine; interlace; intertwine; lace; twine (spin, wind, or twist together)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

wattle (framework consisting of stakes interwoven with branches to form a fence)

 Context examples 

Holmes pointed to the wattles on the severed head.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I returned home, and consulting with the sorrel nag, we went into a copse at some distance, where I with my knife, and he with a sharp flint, fastened very artificially after their manner, to a wooden handle, cut down several oak wattles, about the thickness of a walking-staff, and some larger pieces.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The head was like that of a fowl, the body that of a bloated lizard, the trailing tail was furnished with upward-turned spikes, and the curved back was edged with a high serrated fringe, which looked like a dozen cocks' wattles placed behind each other.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They have a kind of tree, which at forty years old loosens in the root, and falls with the first storm: it grows very straight, and being pointed like stakes with a sharp stone (for the Houyhnhnms know not the use of iron), they stick them erect in the ground, about ten inches asunder, and then weave in oat straw, or sometimes wattles, between them.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)