Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A thin, dried stalk of grass.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The old stalk of various grasses, as the tufted hair-grass, Deschampsia (Aira) cæspitosa, the dog's-tail, Cynosurus cristatus, or Apera (Agrostis) Spica-venti.
- noun The whitethroat, Sylvia cinerea: same as
jackstraw , 5.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun UK, Scotland, dialect A
grass used for makingropes or forplaiting , especially Agrostis Spica-ventis.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word windlestraw.
Examples
-
I knew the windlestraw, Guy de Villehardouin, a raw young provincial, come up the first time to Court, but a fiery little cockerel for all of that.
Chapter 11 2010
-
But before I found them, I encountered a windlestraw which showed which way blew the wind and gave promise of a very gale.
Chapter 11 2010
-
My dear man of moods! my good vagabond! my windlestraw of circumstance! constant only to one ideal -- the unattainable perfection in a kind of roguish art.
Doom Castle Neil Munro
-
I knew the windlestraw, Guy de Villehardouin, a raw young provincial, come up the first time to Court, but a fiery little cockerel for all of that.
Chapter 11 1915
-
But before I found them, I encountered a windlestraw which showed which way blew the wind and gave promise of a very gale.
Chapter 11 1915
-
The two men carried the chest along at a rate that perhaps came easily enough to Jim Lucky, who was a young giant of a seaman, but was astonishing for a thin, windlestraw of a man such as Glass.
Poison Island Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903
-
"Ai-ee!" cried the accused, still shielding his neck and cowering in the dust -- a thin ragged windlestraw of a youth, flaxen-headed, hatchet-faced, with eyes set like a hare's.
Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903
-
But before I found them I encountered a windlestraw which showed which way blew the wind and gave promise of a very gale.
The Jacket (Star-Rover) Jack London 1896
-
"Lever it!" cried the gruff voice, "if you have the backbone of a windlestraw, lever!"
-
The sound of his pipe was like singing wasps, and like the wind that sings in windlestraw; and it took hold upon men's ears like the crying of gulls.
Fables Robert Louis Stevenson 1872
-
The word windlestraw is a British word referring to a thin dry stalk of grass or a grass used for plaiting or making ropes.
Search: fadedpage.com Bottome, Phyllis 2026
yaybob commented on the word windlestraw
A person who is tall, thin and unhealthy looking
December 16, 2008
corylusavellana commented on the word windlestraw
A truly beautiful word.
December 23, 2008
avivamagnolia commented on the word windlestraw
Etymology: Middle English *windelstraw, from Old English windelstrēaw, from windel- (akin to Middle English windel caulking material) + strēaw straw
Date: Before 12th century
January 17, 2009
avivamagnolia commented on the word windlestraw
windlestrawwinlestrae.
January 17, 2009
avivamagnolia commented on the word windlestraw
Somebody who is regarded as lacking in strength of character ( archaic or literary )
January 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word windlestraw
A lovely word! Let's revive it!
January 17, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word windlestraw
It's a bird.
January 5, 2012