willow

Pluralwillows

Formswillows, willowing, willowed

1. 1
   treenouncountable

   Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Salix, in the family Salicaceae, growing mainly on moist soils in the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

   From the ridge we could trace the stream by the willows crowding its banks.

   The old willow by the boathouse dropped its leaves early that fall.

   Note

   An old name with a twisting root: Middle English wilwe, Old English welig, and behind them a reconstructed Indo-European root wel-, "twist, turn", which suits a tree of long, slender, swaying branches. Those branches lend themselves to comparison, as in a figure "frail as a willow branch", and the same image gives English the verb for swaying movement.

2. 2
   woodnoununcountable

   The wood obtained from trees and shrubs of the genus Salix, the willows.

   The bowls on the stall were turned from willow and finished with linseed oil.

   He stacked the willow in a separate pile from the oak in the woodshed.

3. 3
   cricket batnouncolloquialcountable

   A bat used by a batter to strike the ball in cricket.

   He strode out to the crease with his willow tucked under one arm.

   The young opener wielded the willow with real authority, striking four boundaries in a single over.

   Similarbat

   Note

   Cricket talk names the bat after its timber. The blade is traditionally cut from willow, so the wood itself stands in for the whole implement. The word is colloquial and a little playful, and it often takes the: a batter is said to wield the willow. In neutral description, bat remains the ordinary word.

4. 4
   swayverbintransitive

   To take a shape or move in the manner of a willow's long, slender branches.

   Long strands of kelp willow back and forth in the current beneath the pier.

   The dancer's arms willowed above her head as the music slowed to a close.

   Similarsway, undulate, wave

   Note

   The things that willow are things that trail or sway, such as smoke, hair, a shadow, or a thin, bent figure. The verb nearly always brings a phrase of direction or place with it. Robert Byron has a figure willowing over the cobbles of a pier, and Dean Koontz has smoke that willowed down through a hole. It takes no object, which keeps it apart from the mill verb, where cotton or flax is the thing willowed.

5. 5
   baseball batnounslangcountable

   A bat used by a batter to hit the pitched ball in baseball.

   Leading off the ninth, the shortstop tapped his willow on the plate and dug in.

   The team kept its willows in a long wooden rack beside the dugout.

   Similarbat

   Note

   Baseball slang gave the bat this name in the 1800s, and the word still carries that era with it. Like the cricket nickname, it calls the bat by the name of a wood. Used today, it reads as deliberate period color. It belongs in a story about the early game more than in a report on last night's.

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