withes

Noun

withe (plural withes)

1. A flexible, slender shoot or twig, especially when used as a band or for binding; a withy.
   • It was most ingeniously secured at vacant hours, by a withe twisted in the handle of the door, and stakes set against the window-shutters;[…]1810, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

   Synonyms:

   winding

2. A band of twisted twigs.
   • They deemed it little scathe indeed / That her coarse homespun ragged weed / Fell off from her round arms and lithe / Laid on the door-post, that a withe / Of willows was her only belt; / And each as he gazed at her felt / As some gift had been given him.1870, William Morris, “December: The Fostering of Aslaug”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part IV, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 57
3. An elastic handle to a tool to save the hand from the shock of blows.
4. An iron attachment on one end of a mast or boom, with a ring, through which another mast or boom is rigged out and secured.
   • Some short topgallant masts are rigged with a withe on the after part of the mast-head, through which a sliding-gunter royal-mast is run up, with its heel resting in a step on the topmast cap.1841, Richard Henry Dana, The Seaman's Friend

See all 6 meanings of withe