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 making ropes or for plaiting, especially Agrostis Spica-ventis.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Old English windelstrēaw : windel, basket (from windan, to wind) + strēaw, straw; see straw.]

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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 Dew of Their Youth 1887

  • 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

Comments

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  • A person who is tall, thin and unhealthy looking

    December 16, 2008

  • A truly beautiful word.

    December 23, 2008

  • 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

  • windlestrawwinlestrae.

    January 17, 2009

  • Somebody who is regarded as lacking in strength of character ( archaic or literary )

    January 17, 2009

  • A lovely word! Let's revive it!

    January 17, 2009

  • It's a bird.

    January 5, 2012