willow

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

• noun Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Salix, having usually narrow leaves, unisexual flowers borne in catkins, and strong lightweight wood.
• noun The wood of any of these trees.
• noun Something, such as a cricket bat, that is made from willow.
• noun 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.
• transitive verb To open and clean (textile fibers) with a willow.

from The Century Dictionary.

• 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.
• noun 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.
• noun A plant of the genus Salix, consisting of trees, shrubs, and rarely almost herbaceous plants.
• noun The wood of the willow; hence, in base-ball and cricket, the bat.
• noun See willow-herb.
• noun 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.
• noun Same as bay willow .
• noun See willow-herb.
• noun Salix Sitchensis, a low much-branched tree of the Pacific coast from California northward.
• Made of the wood of the willow; consisting of willow.
• Of the color of the bark of young willow-wood; of a dull yellowish-green color.
• noun Same as blackbutt.
• noun Same as coobah.

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

• transitive verb To open and cleanse, as cotton, flax, or wool, by means of a willow. See willow, n., 2.
• noun (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.
• noun (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.
• noun (Bot.) See under Almond, Pussy, and Weeping.
• noun (Zoöl.), [Prov. Eng.] the blue tit.
• noun (Zoöl.) a greenish European stone fly (Chloroperla viridis); -- called also yellow Sally.
• noun (Zoöl.) a conical, scaly gall produced on willows by the larva of a small dipterous fly (Cecidomyia strobiloides).
• noun (Zoöl.) the white ptarmigan. See ptarmigan.
• noun (Zoöl.), [Prov. Eng.] the sedge warbler.
• noun (Zoöl.) A sparrow (Passer salicicolus) native of Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe.
• noun the prepared leaves of a species of willow largely grown in the neighborhood of Shanghai, extensively used by the poorer classes of Chinese as a substitute for tea.
• noun (Zoöl.) a variety of the veery, or Wilson's thrush. See Veery.
• noun (Zoöl.) a very small European warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus); -- called also bee bird, haybird, golden wren, pettychaps, sweet William, Tom Thumb, and willow wren.

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

• noun 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.
• noun cricket, colloquial A cricket bat
• noun baseball, slang, 1800s The baseball bat.
• noun A rotating, spiked drum used to open, and clean cotton heads
• verb transitive To open and cleanse (cotton, flax, wool, etc.) by means of a willow.

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

• noun a textile machine having a system of revolving spikes for opening and cleaning raw textile fibers
• noun any of numerous deciduous trees and shrubs of the genus Salix