creels

Noun

creel (plural creels)

1. A woven basket, especially a wicker basket.
   • For this purpose they got an old creel to put him in and some straw to light under it. Seeing the serious turn matters were likely to take, he resolved not to await the trial, but flew up the smoke-hole, and when at the top he cried out that things would have gone very differently with them had it...1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 393

   Synonyms:

   wick

   1. An osier basket that anglers use to hold fish.
      • Return with a creel of trout for supper.1895, R. D. Blackmore, Slain By The Doones, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 6
   2. (historical) Such a basket slung as a backpack for cargo, especially in times and places with limited or nonexistent wheeled transport, as for example among peasants in mountainous regions.
   3. (historical) Such a basket slung on a pack animal; a pannier.
2. A bar or set of bars with skewers for holding paying-off bobbins, as in the roving machine, throstle, and mule.

See all 8 meanings of creel