wattle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A construction of poles intertwined with twigs, reeds, or branches, used for walls, fences, and roofs.
2. n. Material used for such construction.
3. n. A fleshy, wrinkled, often brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat, characteristic of certain birds, such as chickens or turkeys, and some lizards.
4. n. Botany Any of various Australian trees or shrubs of the genus Acacia.
5. v. To construct from wattle.
6. v. To weave into wattle.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A framework made of interwoven rods or twigs; a hurdle. See hurdle.
2. n. A rod; a wand; a switch; a twig.
3. n. A basket; a bag or wallet.
4. n. In ornithology, a fleshy lobe hanging from the front of the head; specifically, such a lobe of the domestic hen, or a like formation of any bird. Wattles most properly so called are paired, as in the hen, but may be single, as the dewlap of the turkey. They are very various in size, shape, and color, but are usually pendent, and of some bright tint, as red, yellow, or blue. They occur in several different orders of birds, and among species whose near relatives are devoid of such appendages. Similar lobes or flaps on the auriculars are sometimes called ear-wattles, though more properly ear-lobes. See wattle-bird, wattle-crow, phrases under wattled, and cuts under Gallus and Rasores.
5. n. A flap of skin forming a sort of dewlap on each side of the neck of some domestic swine.
6. n. In ichthyology, a fleshy excrescence about the mouth; a barbel.
7. n. One of various Australian and Tasmanian acacias, valued to some extent for their wood and for their gum, but more for their bark, which is rich in tannin. For tanbark the most important species are Acacia decurrens, or (if it is distinct from this, as appears to be the case) A. mollissima, the common black wattle, also called green or feathered wattle, and A. pycnantha, the broad-leafed or golden wattle. The silver wattle, A. dealbata, closely allied to the black wattle, is distinguished by the ashen color of its young foliage, and is a taller tree of moister ground. Its bark is inferior, but is considerably used for lighter leathers. Other species yielding tan-bark are A. saligna (A. leiophylla), the blackwood or lightwood, A. Melanoxy-Ion, the native hickory (A. subporosa), A. pennineruis, etc. Several wattles yield a gum resembling gum arable. somewhat exported for use in cotton-printing as an adhesive, etc. The principal sources of this product are the black wattle, the broad-leafed wattle, and A. homolophylla.
8. n. In heraldry, a wattle or dewlap used in a bearing. Compare wattled.
9. To bind, wall, fence, or otherwise fit with wattles.
10. To form by interweaving twigs or branches: as, to wattle a fence.
11. To interweave; interlace; form into basket-work or network.
12. To switch; beat.

Wiktionary

1. n. A construction of branches and twigs woven together to form a wall, barrier, fence, or roof.
2. n. A wrinkled fold of skin, sometimes brightly coloured, hanging from the neck of birds (such as chicken and turkey) and some lizards.
3. n. A decorative fleshy appendage on the neck of a goat.
4. n. Loose hanging skin in the neck of a person.
5. n. Any of several Australian trees and shrubs of the genus Acacia.
6. v. transitive To construct a wattle, or make a construction of wattles.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A twig or flexible rod; hence, a hurdle made of such rods.
2. n. A rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.
3. n. A naked fleshy, and usually wrinkled and highly colored, process of the skin hanging from the chin or throat of a bird or reptile.
4. n. Barbel of a fish.
5. n. The astringent bark of several Australian trees of the genus Acacia, used in tanning; -- called also wattle bark.
6. n. Material consisting of wattled twigs, withes, etc., used for walls, fences, and the like.
7. n. (Bot.) In Australasia, any tree of the genus Acacia; -- so called from the wattles, or hurdles, which the early settlers made of the long, pliable branches or of the split stems of the slender species. The bark of such trees is also called wattle. See also Savanna wattle, under Savanna.
8. v. To bind with twigs.
9. v. To twist or interweave, one with another, as twigs; to form a network with; to plat.
10. v. To form, by interweaving or platting twigs.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of various Australasian trees yielding slender poles suitable for wattle
2. n. a fleshy wrinkled and often brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat of certain birds (chickens and turkeys) or lizards
3. v. interlace to form wattle
4. v. build of or with wattle
5. n. framework consisting of stakes interwoven with branches to form a fence