withe
- noun
- /wɪð/
- Archaic
:
soga
- An old quilt was folded, lying on top of a large oval basket woven from broad withes.
- willow withe
Examples
-
To construct the fence, we twisted flexible withes around the posts.
-
I knew it to be as heavy as my great sledge, but in his hands, it seemed no weightier than a willow withe.
Fiction book (1991) -
When at last he rose in the morning, his mouth was dry, his muscles like bundles of withes, and his eyes hot from long staring up at the ceiling.
Fiction book (1992) -
They walked through back alleys to a small shed, screened from the street by a lattice of woven withe.
Fiction book (1993) -
"I swear I'll have all their hides stretched on willow withes before I'm finished with this expedition." "Them Hawkes is mine," said the Spaniard.
Fiction book (1994) -
The Stillwater Natural Area is significant for such shrubs as arrow-wood, hardhack, meadowsweet, sheep laurel, winterberry, and withe-rod.
Academic text (2011) -
She stirred the thickening milk, and when it was ready, she separated it through a sieve of twisted willow withes, letting the whey run into a tin pot.
Fiction book (1997) -
She used a withe to tie the branches together for her basket.
-
The artisan crafted a chair from sturdy withes that added both strength and beauty.
Synonyms
Surface Forms
Etymology
Withe comes from an old English word wīth meaning 'twig' or 'band'. Think of a flexible twig you can twist into a rope to bind things, and that picture explains why a withe is a strong, bendy twig used for tying.