wattle
/ˈwɒtl̩/US/ˈwɑtl̩/
wattle noun: a construction of branches and twigs woven together to form a wall, barrier, fence, or roof.
Noun
wattle (countable and uncountable, plural wattles)
- A construction of branches and twigs woven together to form a wall, barrier, fence, or roof.
- And there the heathen Prince, Arviragus, / Gave him an isle of marsh whereon to build; / And there he built with wattles from the marsh / A little lonely church in days of yore, […]1874, Alfred Tennyson, “The Holy Grail”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; VI), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 104
- 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.
- The buttons below his waddle open to reveal a ruddy V, tidemark of the sun.2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
- Any of several Australian trees and shrubs of the genus Acacia, or their bark, used in tanning, seen as a national emblem of Australia.
- The tents and sheets are made of the best Canadian duck, tanned for the purpose of preservation with a strong extract of iron-bark and wattle-bark.1901, “Progress in the Fruit Industry of Queensland”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, page 16
- An ear (organ of hearing).
- "Tip me your wattles, my pal, and touch my whids, or I'll make you whindle like a kinchin," give me your ears and take my words, or I'll make you snivel like a child.1859, George Washington Matsell, Vocabulum; or The Rogue's Lexicon
- Wat. A hare, from his wattles, i. e. long ears.1883, Albert Ellery Berg, The Universal Self-instructor and Manual of General Reference, page 224
Verb
wattle (third-person singular simple present wattles, present participle wattling, simple past and past participle wattled)
wattle meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Kannada and Punjabi
wattle in Tamil
- தசைத் தொங்கல், நாசிப்படல், வரிச்சு
wattle in Urdu
- بید, چھڑی, ڈنڈی
wattle in Kannada
- construction of branches and twigs
- ತಡಿಕೆ taḍike
wattle in Punjabi
- wattle
- ਸਿਰਕੀ sirkī
More languagesFewer languages
- wattle in Indonesian
- gelambir
- wattle in Persian
- لار lâr, دگلان deglân
- wattle in Thai
- เหนียง nǐiang
- wattle in Vietnamese
- liếp, phên
Examples of wattle in a sentence
- The 1½-hour tramp passes through banksia, gum, and wattle forests, with spectacular views of peaks and valleys.
- Dogs were heard howling and there was a rustle in the silver wattle.
- A tiny white head with a small red wattle hanging from its beak was peeking into our tent.
Forms of wattle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | wattles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | wattles |
| present participle | wattling |
| past participle | wattled |
| past | wattled |
Origin of wattle
From Middle English wattel, watel, from Old English watel, watul (“hurdle”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, wind, bend”).
Words formed from wattle
- black wattle
- chinchilla wattle
- cinnamon wattle
- climbing wattle
- Cootamundra wattle
- golden wattle
- hickory wattle
- pinbush wattle
- sallee wattle
- savannah wattle
- savanna wattle
- silver wattle
- spurwing wattle
- sunshine wattle
- wattle and daub
- wattle bagworm
- wattlebird
- wattle-eye
- Wattle Glen
- Wattle Ponds
- Wattle Range
- wattle turkey
Phrases with wattle
Words that rhyme with wattle
Questions about wattle
- What does wattle mean?
- Wattle means a construction of branches and twigs woven together to form a wall, barrier, fence, or roof.
- What is wattle in Tamil?
- Wattle in Tamil is தசைத் தொங்கல், நாசிப்படல், வரிச்சு. See Wattle meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is wattle?
- Wattle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce wattle?
- Wattle is pronounced /ˈwɒtl̩/ (UK).
- What is the plural of wattle?
- The plural of wattle is wattles.
Words near wattle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wattle (page history and authors); wattle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wattle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸਿਰਕੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wattle.wav.
Cite this entry: “wattle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wattle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.