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countable and uncountable, plural rattans
Any of several species of climbing palm of the genus Calamus. examples
(uncountable) The plant used as a material for making furniture, baskets etc. quotations examples
It took Elwood an hour to find Mr. Gladwell, who sat in a big rattan chair at the edge of the sweet potato fields.
2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 180
(by extension) A cane made from this material. quotations examples
He who first acts as striker asks the other how many blows of the rattan he will bear on his forearm without crying out.
1906, Walter William Skeat, Charles Otto Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula
“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
[…] the rattan is still a valued instrument of discipline […]
2008, Jean-François Bayart, Andrew Brown, Global Subjects: A Political Critique of Globalization
third-person singular simple present rattans, present participle rattaning, simple past and past participle rattaned
(transitive) To beat with a rattan cane. quotations examples
Meanwhile Captain Colville rattaned Pearson very severely […]
1915, Edward Walford, George Latimer Apperson, The Antiquary, volume 51, page 56