windles

Noun (1)

windle (plural windles)

1. (UK, dialectal) The redwing.
   • The modus operandi somewhat recalls the stratagem of Gideon, for the birds—chiefly thrushes, blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings (locally "windles"), and starlings (smaller birds being disregarded)—terrified by the noise, and dazed by the lantern glare, suffered themselves to be taken by the hand, or...1908, W. F. Rose, edited by William White, Notes and queries, page 48

Noun (2)

windle (plural windles)

1. (dialectal) A basket.
2. An old English measure of corn, half a bushel.
   • In the Derby household book of 1561, wheat, malt, and oats are sold by the quarter and the windle, in which the quarter clearly contained sixteen windles, and must have been a wholly different measure from that which we are familiar.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 208

Noun (3)

windle (plural windles)

1. Any dried-out grass leaf or stalk in a field.
   • We rode by the side of a barren mountain, which was covered to an extent of three miles with quartz, and produced little or no herbage, except a species of wiry or windle-grass, which was much parched by the sun.1812, John Mawe, Travels in the Interior of Brazil
   1. Also any of several species of grasses that leave such leaves or stalks, such as dog-tail grass, Plantago lanceolata.
      • That he has given a fair character of the Crested dog's tail, I have proved by repeated experiments; in the North of Ireland, we know its panicles but two well, under the name of windle straws.1813, The Repertory of arts and manufactures
2. Bent grass (Agrostis spp.).

See all 12 meanings of windle