Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several willows having long rodlike twigs used in basketry, especially Salix viminalis, native to Eurasia.
- noun A twig of one of these shrubs or trees.
- noun Any of several North American dogwoods, especially the red osier.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Either the round-leaved dogwood, Cornus circinata, or the alternate-leaved dogwood, C. alternifolia, the twigs of which are green.
- noun Leucothoe racemosa, an ornamental shrub of the eastern United States with racemes of waxy white flowers borne on the under side of recurved racemes.
- noun One of various species of willow (Salix) whose tough flexible branches are employed for wickerwork, withes, etc.
- Made or consisting of willow or other shoots or twigs.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Made of osiers; composed of, or containing, osiers.
- noun A kind of willow (
Salix viminalis ) growing in wet places in Europe and Asia, and introduced into North America. It is considered the best of the willows for basket work. The name is sometimes given to any kind of willow. - noun One of the long, pliable twigs of this plant, or of other similar plants.
- noun [Eng.] a place where willows are grown for basket making.
- noun An American shrub (
Cornus stolonifera ) which has slender red branches; -- also calledosier cornel .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A kind of
willow , Salix viminalis, growing in wet places in Europe and Asia, and introduced into North America. It is considered the best of the willows for basket work. The name is sometimes given to any kind of willow. - noun One of the long, pliable
twigs of this plant, or of other similar plants.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun flexible twig of a willow tree
- noun any of various willows having pliable twigs used in basketry and furniture
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The purple osier is already set with green points from which are to emerge fluffy catkins, and the sallow is preparing its gold and silver blossoms which are to be the early palm, dripping with honey and humming with insects.
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They are small islands planted entirely with willows, and are called osier-holts.
Miscellanea Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing 1863
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On the arrival of the news of his second ejectment, he turned to his wife and said: "Wife, get the creels ready again;" that is, the osier baskets in which he had carried his children in his first remove.
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It is a place like the court; but instead of pales there are hurdles, which are made of sticks that will bend, such as osier twigs; and they are twisted and made very fast, so that nothing can creep in, and nothing can get out.
Harry's Ladder to Learning Anonymous
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Malia wore a dress from Anthropologie the 'unconditional osier dress', while Sasha wore a 'Clarissa jacquard dress' from BB Dakota.
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To replace a defunct rhododendron I planted a small red osier dogwood and on the hot sunny side of the house, a canadice grape vine that promises prolific fruit suitable for jams and jelly.
Elizabeth Grossman: Supper on a Sunday of Hands in the Dirt Elizabeth Grossman 2010
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At the top of the ridge he built a larger gazebo, a curved shape that he wove, basketlike, out of saplings and osier so that its curved lines seemed to grow out of the surrounding landscape.
Louisa May Alcott Susan Cheever 2010
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To replace a defunct rhododendron I planted a small red osier dogwood and on the hot sunny side of the house, a canadice grape vine that promises prolific fruit suitable for jams and jelly.
Elizabeth Grossman: Supper on a Sunday of Hands in the Dirt 2010
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To replace a defunct rhododendron I planted a small red osier dogwood and on the hot sunny side of the house, a canadice grape vine that promises prolific fruit suitable for jams and jelly.
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It has mats of water lily Nymphaea alba and bushes of goat willow Salix caprea, grey willow S. cinerea and purple osier S. purpurea.
vendingmachine commented on the word osier
"Some branches from specific trees have their own names, such as osiers and withes or withies, which come from willows."
June 24, 2015