Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various perennial herbs of the genus Typha, widespread in marshy places and having long straplike leaves and a dense cylindrical cluster of minute flowers and fruits.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In cotton manufacturing, any corded, stringy tuft of cotton, due to faulty setting of a machine.
  • noun The common name of the tall reed-like aquatic plant Typha latifolia: so called from its long cylindrical furry spikes: often popularly called bulrush and cat-o'-nine-tails. Also cat's-tail.
  • noun Same as cat's-tail grass (which see, under cat's-tail).
  • noun Same as catkin.
  • noun Nautical, that end of a cat-head which is fastened to the ship's frame.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A tall erect rush or flag (Typha latifolia) growing widely in fresh and salt marshes, with long, flat, sword-shaped leaves, having clusters of small brown flowers in a dense cylindrical spike at the top of the stem; -- called also bulrush and reed mace. The leaves are frequently used for seating chairs, making mats, etc. See catkin.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of several perennial herbs, of the genus Typha, that have long flat leaves, and grow in marshy places

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun tall erect herbs with sword-shaped leaves; cosmopolitan in fresh and salt marshes

Etymologies

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Examples

  • There's a really lovely pink kind of cattail-ish print, as well, that would be just as nice for a grown-up girl or retro boy as it is for an infant.

    February 2008 2008

  • There's a really lovely pink kind of cattail-ish print, as well, that would be just as nice for a grown-up girl or retro boy as it is for an infant.

    Like Taking Window Treatments From a Baby - A Dress A Day 2008

  • Vegetables were also dried-stems, buds, and particularly starchy roots, such as cattail, thistle, licorish fern, and various lily corms.

    The Plains of Passage Auel, Jean M. 1990

  • In her hand was a brown "cattail," perfectly full and round.

    Their Dear Little Ghost 1898

  • In her hand was a brown "cattail," perfectly full and round.

    The Shape of Fear, and other ghostly tales 1898

  • In her hand was a brown "cattail," perfectly full and round.

    The Shape of Fear Elia Wilkinson Peattie 1898

  • Areas within the pheasant management counties that contain adequate winter cover such as cattail and shrub-carr marshes, well established native prairie fields, and areas with 15 percent or more of the landscape in idle grassland will have the highest pheasant densities.

    unknown title 2009

  • What he is trying to say, no no no, your green head must be shimmering in your eyes, that isn't a dude in the brush just a mishaped cattail bush, the eating is great and the ladies are easy too much action for me.

    Contest: Translate Duck Speak, Win Decoys (and More!) 2009

  • What he is trying to say, no no no, your green head must be shimmering in your eyes, that isn't a dude in the brush just a mishaped cattail bush, the eating is great and the ladies are easy too much action for me.

    Contest: Translate Duck Speak, Win Decoys (and More!) 2009

  • They'd travel from one end of the pond to the other as a team, one of them separating itself from the others to investigate this cattail or that leaf while the others waited patiently, the three then resuming their peregrinations.

    Swimming With the Fish Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011

Comments

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  • My boss told me today that you can light cattails and use them as "punks" to light fireworks, fires, etc... Better get the halon extinguisher ready

    October 5, 2007

  • Interesting boss you have there, beanie!

    October 5, 2007