windlestraw

noun

windlestraw

noun

Etymology From windle + straw.

1

Scotland, UK, Dialectal A grass used for making ropes or for plaiting, especially Apera spica-venti.

  • Grey rocks did peep from the square moss, and stemmed / The struggling brook: tall spires of windlestrae / Threw their thin shadows down the rugged slope, / And nought but gnarlèd roots of ancient pines, / Branchless and blasted, clenched with grasping roots / The unwilling soil.1816, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alastor:

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