Definition of "willow"

willow

/ˈwɪl.əʊ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural willows
1. 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.
  Quotations
  […] and through the middle of this forest, from wall to wall, ran a winding line of brilliant green which marked the course of cottonwoods and willows.
  1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers
2. The wood of these trees.
3. (cricket, colloquial) A cricket bat.
4. (baseball, slang, 1800s) The baseball bat.
5. A rotating spiked drum used to open and clean cotton heads.
verb
third-person singular simple present willows, present participle willowing, simple past and past participle willowed
1. (transitive) To open and cleanse (cotton, flax, wool, etc.) by means of a willow.
2. (intransitive) To form a shape or move in a way similar to the long, slender branches of a willow.
  Quotations
  Willowing over the rough cobbles of the little pier stepped a thin, bent figure, adorned with a silver nannygoat’s beard and bobbling eyes interrupted by the rim of a pair of pince-nez.
  1928, Robert Byron, chapter 12, in The Station: Travels to the Holy Mountain of Greece‎
  Joe’s impulse was to sketch her, with her shadow willowing beyond her on the mouse-gray paving-stone; but his left fist, obeying instinct, remained clenched behind his back […]
  1930, Talbot Mundy, chapter 7, in Black Light‎
  It was floating a foot under the surface. The eyes were holes. The mouth was a slit cavern of darkness. The hair willowed around the scalp.
  1985, Martin Booth, Hiroshima Joe, New York: Picador, page 394
  The draft-drawn smoke willowed down through the hole and across my face, but I didn’t worry about coughing or sneezing.
  2013, Dean Koontz, Wilderness‎, Bantam Books

Definition of "willow"

willow

noun

Quotations

verb

Quotations