wattle Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a fleshy wrinkled and often brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat of certain birds (chickens and turkeys) or lizards
lappet.
noun framework consisting of stakes interwoven with branches to form a fence
noun any of various Australasian trees yielding slender poles suitable for wattle
verb build of or with wattle
verb interlace to form wattle

AS. watel, watul, watol, hurdle, covering, wattle; cf. OE. watel a bag. Cf. Wallet.

A twig or flexible rod; hence, a hurdle made of such rods.
And there he built with wattles from the marsh A little lonely church in days of yore. Tennyson.
A rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.
(Zoöl.) (a) A naked fleshy, and usually wrinkled and highly colored, process of the skin hanging from the chin or throat of a bird or reptile. (b) Barbel of a fish.
(a) The astringent bark of several Australian trees of the genus Acacia, used in tanning; -- called also wattle bark. (b) (Bot.) The trees from which the bark is obtained. See Savanna wattle, under Savanna.

imperfect & past participle Wattled ; present participle & verbal noun Wattling

To bind with twigs.
To twist or interweave, one with another, as twigs; to form a network with; to plat; as, to wattle branches.
To form, by interweaving or platting twigs.
The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes. Milton.