Definition of "creel"

A woven basket, especially a wicker basket and especially as follows:

1. (fishing) An osier basket that anglers use to hold fish.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Return with a creel of trout for supper.

     1895, R. D. Blackmore, Slain By The Doones, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 6

   • Her great creel forehead-slung, she wanders nigh, Easing the heavy strap with gnarled, brown fingers

     1897, William Henley, In Fisherrow

2. (chiefly historical) Such a basket slung as a backpack for cargo, especially in times and places with limited or nonexistent wheeled transport, as for example among peasants in mountainous regions.

   1. (chiefly historical) Such a basket slung on a pack animal; a pannier.

(textile making) A bar or set of bars with skewers for holding paying-off bobbins, as in the roving machine, throstle, and mule.  examples

(transitive) To place (fish) in a creel.  examples