wattle

Meanings

Noun

• A construction of branches and twigs woven together to form a wall, barrier, fence, or roof.
• A single twig or rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.
• A wrinkled fold of skin, sometimes brightly coloured, hanging from the neck of birds (such as chicken and turkey) and some lizards.
• A barbel of a fish.
• A decorative fleshy appendage on the neck of a goat.
• Loose hanging skin in the neck of a person.
• Any of several Australian trees and shrubs of the genus Acacia, or their bark, used in tanning.
• This plant seen as the national emblem of Australia.

Verb

• To construct a wattle, or make a construction of wattles.
• To bind with wattles or twigs.

Origin

• From Middle English wattel, watel, from Old English watel, watul. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wey-.