willow

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Salix, having usually narrow leaves, unisexual flowers borne in catkins, and strong lightweight wood.
2. n. The wood of any of these trees.
3. n. Something, such as a cricket bat, that is made from willow.
4. n. A textile machine consisting of a spiked drum revolving inside a chamber fitted internally with spikes, used to open and clean unprocessed cotton or wool.
5. v. To open and clean (textile fibers) with a willow.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Same as blackbutt.
2. n. Same as coobah.
3. n. A plant of the genus Salix, consisting of trees, shrubs, and rarely almost herbaceous plants. Of the many species a few are of decided economic worth as furnishing osiers (osier willow, crack willow, purple willow, while willow), or for their wood (crack willow, white willow), or for their bark, which in northern Europe is esteemed equal to oak-bark for tanning. Many are excellent for fixing loose sands, some serve for hedges, while several are highly ornamental. A few plants with some similarity to the willow have borrowed its name. See osier, sallow, and the phrases below.
4. n. The wood of the willow; hence, in base-ball and cricket, the bat.
5. n. See willow-herb.
6. n. The variety Scouleriana of Salix flavescens, found on the western coast of North America, a small tree with the wood light, hard, strong, and tough.
7. n. Same as bay willow .
8. n. See willow-herb.
9. n. Salix Sitchensis, a low much-branched tree of the Pacific coast from California northward.
10. Made of the wood of the willow; consisting of willow.
11. Of the color of the bark of young willow-wood; of a dull yellowish-green color.
12. To beat, as cotton, etc., with willow rods, in order to loosen it and eject the impurities; hence, to pick and clean, as any fibrous material; treat with the willow or willowing-machine.
13. n. A power-machine for extracting dirt and foreign matter from hemp and flax, for cleaning cotton, and for tearing open and cleaning wool preparatory to Spinning. The machines used for these different materials vary in size, but are essentially alike, and consist of a revolving cylinder armed with spikes in a cylindrical casing also armed with spikes. A part of the casing forms a grid or sieve, through which the waste falls by gravity or is drawn by a suction blast In certain cotton manufactures it follows the opener, or is used in place of it, and is followed by the scutcher. Also called cotton-cleaning machine, devil, opening-machine, willower, willowing-machine, willow-machine, and willying-machine.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs in the genus Salix, in the willow family Salicaceae, found primarily on moist soils in cooler zones in the northern hemisphere.
2. n. cricket, colloquial A cricket bat
3. n. baseball, slang, 1800s The baseball bat.
4. n. A rotating, spiked drum used to open, and clean cotton heads
5. v. transitive To open and cleanse (cotton, flax, wool, etc.) by means of a willow.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) Any tree or shrub of the genus Salix, including many species, most of which are characterized often used as an emblem of sorrow, desolation, or desertion. “A wreath of willow to show my forsaken plight.” Sir W. Scott. Hence, a lover forsaken by, or having lost, the person beloved, is said to wear the willow.
2. n. (Textile Manuf.) A machine in which cotton or wool is opened and cleansed by the action of long spikes projecting from a drum which revolves within a box studded with similar spikes; -- probably so called from having been originally a cylindrical cage made of willow rods, though some derive the term from winnow, as denoting the winnowing, or cleansing, action of the machine. Called also willy, twilly, twilly devil, and devil.
3. v. To open and cleanse, as cotton, flax, or wool, by means of a willow. See willow, n., 2.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a textile machine having a system of revolving spikes for opening and cleaning raw textile fibers
2. n. any of numerous deciduous trees and shrubs of the genus Salix