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''willow'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''willow'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260313192153-00-⌔

willow - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

willow (countable and uncountable, plural willows)

  • 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.
    • ✤ […] 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.1
    • ✤ And willows, willow-herb, and grass,/And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,/No whit less still and lonely fair/Than the high cloudlets in the sky.2
    • ✤ The pounded leaves of the willow, drunk in a concoction, were formerly reputed to diminish amatory desires.3
    • ✤ By old age she was emaciated, the bones jutting out of her face and her figure frail as a willow branch.4
    • ✤ Deep in the willow/Hidden from grace/Succumb to insecurity/Your final resting place/Crafting your perfect world, ignoring total truth/You’ll die alone/There’s only room for you5
  • The wood of these trees.
  • (cricket, colloquial) A cricket bat.
  • (baseball, slang, 1800s) The baseball bat.
  • A rotating spiked drum used to open and clean cotton heads.

Verb

willow (third-person singular simple present willows, present participle willowing, simple past and past participle willowed)

  • (transitive) To open and cleanse (cotton, flax, wool, etc.) by means of a willow.
  • (intransitive) To form a shape or move in a way similar to the long, slender branches of a willow.
    • ✤ * Willowing over the rough cobbles of the little pier stepped a thin, bent figure, adorned with a silver nanny-goat’s beard and bobbling eyes interrupted by the rim of a pair of pince-nez.*6
    • ✤ 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 […]7
    • ✤ 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.8
    • ✤ The draft-drawn smoke willowed down through the hole and across my face, but I didn’t worry about coughing or sneezing.9

Etymology

From Middle English wilwe, welew, variant of wilghe, from Old English welig, from Proto-West Germanic ﹡wilig, from Proto-Germanic ﹡wiligaz, from Proto-Indo-European ﹡welik- (compare (Arcadian) Ancient Greek ἑλίκη (helíkē), Hittite 𒌑𒂖𒆪 (welku, “grass”)), from ﹡wel- (“twist, turn”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈwɪl.əʊ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪləʊ
  • (US) IPA: /ˈwɪloʊ/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Audio (Australian): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɪloʊ

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC: ↩

  2. 1917, Edward Thomas, “Adlestrop”, in Poems, London: Selwyn & Blount, page 40: ↩

  3. 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 249: ↩

  4. 1983 December 3, J. R., “Isak Dinesen, The Life of a Storyteller (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 10: ↩

  5. 2023, “Deep in the Willow”, performed by Knocked Loose: ↩

  6. 1928, Robert Byron, “Gardenias and Sweetpeas”, in The Station: Athos: Treasures and Men, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC, page 175: ↩

  7. 1930, Talbot Mundy, chapter 7, in Black Light ‎: ↩

  8. 1985, Martin Booth, Hiroshima Joe, New York: Picador, page 394: ↩

  9. 2013, Dean Koontz, Wilderness ‎, Bantam Books: ↩

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