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osier

osier

9.9
A willow tree with long flexible branches that people use for weaving baskets and furniture
  • noun
  • /ˈoʊʒər/
translation icon : sarga
  • A basket weaver, without knowing what he was doing or why, was creating a wicker crate of osier strands to a most unusual design.
  • red osier
  • osier dogwood

Examples

  • You're a volunteer osier.

  • Pelts, Plumes, and Hides: White Traders Among the Seminole Indians 1870-1930. Kersey. (A. H. Der, osier Jr.) 4(3):253.

    Academic text (1992)
  • Leonard rushes out and goes to the river, past the church and the sheep, past the osier bed.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • A little Angolan basket, woven in a special manner from small, tender osiers (Widlen).

    Academic text (1994)
  • She walks past one of the farm workers (is his name John?), a robust, small-headed man wearing a potato-colored vest, cleaning the ditch that runs through the osier bed.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • My friends say spring brings a surge, hope rising to climax, like the osier's tight skin reddened to the bursting point, like pussywillow roused, nubs open to be ravished.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The artisan skillfully wove a basket from thin strands of osier collected in the nearby river.

  • She used the flexible branches of osier to create a beautiful chair for the patio.

  • To make the decorative fence, they harvested osier from the willow trees along the banks.

Synonyms

basket willow
vsosier
7.4

A willow with long flexible twigs used for making baskets

is the general name for the willow and its flexible branches used in weaving
Salix viminalis
vsosier
  • Specialized
9.9

A willow with long flexible twigs used for making baskets

is the broader term for such willow material for weaving and furniture
common osier
vsosier
  • UK
8.5

A type of willow with long flexible branches used for making baskets

is the general term for that willow and its weaving branches
velvet osier
vsosier
  • UK
9.9

A type of willow with long flexible twigs used for making baskets

is the general phrase for that kind of willow used in weaving and furniture
hemp willow
vsosier
  • UK
7.9

A tree with long flexible twigs used for making baskets

is the broader name for such material used in weaving and furniture
supple willow
vsosier
5.1

A tree with long flexible branches used for weaving baskets

is the general term for that flexible willow used for weaving and furniture
withy
vsosier
  • Archaic
9.9

A strong flexible willow twig used for tying and weaving

is the wider term for the willow tree and its weaving branches
red osier
vsosier
  • UK
9.9

A Eurasian willow with red twigs used for making baskets

is the general name covering such willow types and their flexible branches
9.4

A tree with many branches and long flower clusters used in flower arrangements

is mainly used for weaving baskets and furniture rather than floral use

Compounds

8.5

A type of willow with long flexible branches used for making baskets

9.9

A small willow with purple twigs used for making baskets

A shrub with red stems and small white flowers often growing near streams

9.7

A North American shrub with red stems and small white flowers

9.9

A Eurasian willow with red twigs used for making baskets

9.9

A type of willow with long flexible twigs used for making baskets

How Flexible

withy
  • Archaic
9.9
osier
9.9
twig
61 1.0
branch
243 1.0

Surface Forms

osier singular
osiers plural

Etymology

Osier comes from an old French word meaning 'willow', because the soft, bendy branches of that tree were used for weaving baskets and making wicker furniture.