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  1. woad love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An annual Old World plant (Isatis tinctoria) in the mustard family, formerly cultivated for its leaves that yield a blue dye.
  2. n. The dye obtained from this plant.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A cruciferous plant, Isatistinctoria, formerly much cultivated in Great. Britain on account of the blue dye extracted from its pulped and fermented leaves. It is now, however, nearly superseded by indigo, which gives a stronger and finer blue. It is still cultivated in some parts of Europe, and the dye which it furnishes is said to improve the quality and color of indigo when mixed with it in a certain proportion. The ancient Britons are said to have stained their bodies with the dye procured from the woad-plant.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Common name of the plant Isatis tinctoria whose leaves are used to make a blue dye.
  2. n. The dye made from the plant Isatis tinctoria.
  3. v. to plant or cultivate woad
  4. v. to dye with woad

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Bot.) An herbaceous cruciferous plant (Isatis tinctoria) of the family Cruciferae (syn. Brassicaceae). It was formerly cultivated for the blue coloring matter derived from its leaves. See isatin.
  2. n. A blue dyestuff, or coloring matter, consisting of the powdered and fermented leaves of the Isatis tinctoria. It is now superseded by indigo, but is somewhat used with indigo as a ferment in dyeing.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. any of several herbs of the genus Isatis
  2. n. a blue dyestuff obtained from the woad plant

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English wode, from Old English wād ("woad"), from Proto-Germanic *waidan, *waidaz (“woad”), from Proto-Indo-European *wAit- (“woad”). Cognate with Old Frisian wēd ("woad"), Dutch weed ("woad"), German Waid ("woad"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English wode, from Old English wād. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Your epic fantasy novel, The Dragons of Duncan's Ass Tattoo, can portray My Ass Tattoo's blue-skinned denizens, their miniature zeppelins, and their sphincter-worshipping rituals either accurately or inaccurately, with or without prejudice, but you ain't going to be appropriating their culture until you start covering yourseves in woad, living in airships and pouring libations to The One True Hole.”

    Cultural Appropriation

  • “With these goes the Wadman, who dealt in, or grew, the dye-plant called woad; cf. Flaxman.”

    The Romance of Names

  • “He need not indulge in what is called the woad argument; we sha'n't go back to the early”

    Promenades of an Impressionist

  • “Some few, however, are important, such as woad, weld, heather, walnut, alder, oak, some lichens; and many of the less important ones would produce valuable colours if experiments were made with the right mordants.”

    Vegetable Dyes Being a Book of Recipes and Other Information Useful to the Dyer

  • “These may be divided into two groups: (1) Fermentation vats, in which the action of reducing agents is brought about through the influences of the fermentation of organic bodies, such as woad, bran, treacle, etc; (2) Chemical vats in which the reducing effect is brought about by the reaction of various agents on one another.”

    The Dyeing of Woollen Fabrics

  • “Blue: Handful of woad or 2 cups chopped red cabbage*”

    The Huffington Post: Robyn Griggs Lawrence: Dye Easter Eggs Naturally With Onions, Beets and Blueberries

  • “Doesn't it say a lot about how philistine a country is, about how much blue bloody woad it still paints itself with, that our moral paragons, our moral conscience are represented in the media by cooks and comedians.”

    The Guardian: From porn to Portillo | Mark Lawson

  • “But today I did hear an item about a farm down south where they produce woad, and have perfected a system of their own for extracting a powder which they sell.”

    Archive 2009-01-01

  • “(The spell-checker which continues to complain about “woad” has no trouble with “dithionite”.)”

    Archive 2009-01-01

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. dye
  1. dyestuff

same context (22)

Words that are found in similar contexts

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  2. madder
  3. bugloss
  4. wickeder
  1. w/white
  2. turkey cock
  3. musicall
  4. gallie
  1. seede
  2. herbe
  3. henna
  4. tristesse
  1. ryot
  2. prety
  3. tapster
  4. play-by-play
  1. sweet-fern
  2. Greene
  3. briefe
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  1. hoarfrost
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reverse dictionary (25)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. pastel
  2. wad
  3. woaded
  4. wod
  5. wode
  1. oad
  2. goud
  3. isatis
  4. indican
  5. indigo
  1. chinese indigo
  2. Kendal green
  3. kendal green
  4. wan
  5. woad-mill
  1. ode
  2. dyer's-weed
  3. woad
  4. genus isatis
  5. Kendal
  1. wadder
  2. wade
  3. weld
  4. whin
  5. woad mill

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. blue
  1. dye

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tagging (2)

Words tagged ‘woad’

  1. dyer's-weed
  1. pastel

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‘woad’ has been looked up 3501 times, added to 20 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 8.