WILLOW

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A textile machine having a system of revolving spikes for opening and cleaning raw textile fibers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("willow" is a kind of...):

textile machine (a machine for making textiles)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of numerous deciduous trees and shrubs of the genus Salix

Synonyms:

willow; willow tree

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("willow" is a kind of...):

tree (a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "willow"):

bearberry willow; Salix uva-ursi (dwarf prostrate mat-forming shrub of Arctic and alpine regions of North America and Greenland having deep green elliptic leaves that taper toward the base)

dwarf gray willow; dwarf grey willow; sage willow; Salix tristis (willow shrub of dry places in the eastern United States having long narrow leaves canescent beneath)

Salix sitchensis; silky willow; Sitka willow (small shrubby tree of western North America (Alaska to Oregon))

creeping willow; Salix repens (small trailing bush of Europe and Asia having straggling branches with silky green leaves of which several varieties are cultivated)

balsam willow; Salix pyrifolia (small shrubby tree of eastern North America having leaves exuding an odor of balsam when crushed)

bay willow; laurel willow; Salix pentandra (European willow tree with shining leathery leaves; widely naturalized in the eastern United States)

black willow; Salix nigra; swamp willow (North American shrubby willow having dark bark and linear leaves growing close to streams and lakes)

Salix lucida; shining willow (common North American shrub with shiny lanceolate leaves)

arroyo willow; Salix lasiolepis (shrubby willow of the western United States)

gray willow; grey willow; Salix cinerea (Eurasian shrubby willow with whitish tomentose twigs)

dwarf willow; Salix herbacea (widely distributed boreal shrubby willow with partially underground creeping stems and bright green glossy leaves)

prairie willow; Salix humilis (slender shrubby willow of dry areas of North America)

brittle willow; crack willow; Salix fragilis; snap willow (large willow tree with stiff branches that are easily broken)

hoary willow; sage willow; Salix candida (North American shrub with whitish canescent leaves)

almond-leaves willow; peach-leaved willow; peachleaf willow; Salix amygdaloides (willow of the western United States with leaves like those of peach or almond trees)

sallow (any of several Old World shrubby broad-leaved willows having large catkins; some are important sources for tanbark and charcoal)

pussy willow; Salix discolor (small willow of eastern North America having greyish leaves and silky catkins that come before the leaves)

Salix blanda; Salix pendulina; Salix pendulina blanda; Wisconsin weeping willow (hybrid willow usually not strongly weeping in habit)

Babylonian weeping willow; Salix babylonica; weeping willow (willow with long drooping branches and slender leaves native to China; widely cultivated as an ornamental)

arctic willow; Salix arctica (low creeping shrub of Arctic Europe and America)

cricket-bat willow; Salix alba caerulea (Eurasian willow tree having greyish leaves and ascending branches)

Salix alba sericea; Salix sericea; silky willow; silver willow (North American willow with greyish silky pubescent leaves that usually blacken in drying)

Huntingdon willow; Salix alba; white willow (large willow tree of Eurasia and North Africa having greyish canescent leaves and grey bark)

osier (any of various willows having pliable twigs used in basketry and furniture)

Holonyms ("willow" is a member of...):

genus Salix; Salix (a large and widespread genus varying in size from small shrubs to large trees: willows)

Credits

Context examples:

The disodium salt of a water-soluble phosphate derivative of a natural stilbenoid phenol derived from the African bush willow (Combretum caffrum) with potential vascular disrupting and antineoplastic activities.

(Fosbretabulin Disodium, NCI Thesaurus)

A synthetic water-soluble analogue of combretastatin A4, derived from the South African willow bush (Combretum caffrum), labeled with carbon C 14 with potential antineoplastic activity.

(Carbon C 14 Ombrabulin, NCI Thesaurus)

Negore watched the supple body, bending at the hips as a lynx's body might bend, pliant as a young willow stalk, and, withal, strong as only youth is strong.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I passed it as negligently as I did the pollard willow opposite to it: I had no presentiment of what it would be to me; no inward warning that the arbitress of my life—my genius for good or evil—waited there in humble guise.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and I had now come out upon the skirts of an open piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted with a few pines and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the oak in growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

But the bride said, “Run first, and bring me my garland that is hanging on a willow in the garden.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

From then on, night and day, Buck never left his prey, never gave it a moment’s rest, never permitted it to browse the leaves of trees or the shoots of young birch and willow.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

There was the garnet set which Aunt March wore when she came out, the pearls her father gave her on her wedding day, her lover's diamonds, the jet mourning rings and pins, the queer lockets, with portraits of dead friends and weeping willows made of hair inside, the baby bracelets her one little daughter had worn, Uncle March's big watch, with the red seal so many childish hands had played with, and in a box all by itself lay Aunt March's wedding ring, too small now for her fat finger, but put carefully away like the most precious jewel of them all.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

When I came to the stile, I stopped a minute, looked round and listened, with an idea that a horse's hoofs might ring on the causeway again, and that a rider in a cloak, and a Gytrash-like Newfoundland dog, might be again apparent: I saw only the hedge and a pollard willow before me, rising up still and straight to meet the moonbeams; I heard only the faintest waft of wind roaming fitful among the trees round Thornfield, a mile distant; and when I glanced down in the direction of the murmur, my eye, traversing the hall-front, caught a light kindling in a window: it reminded me that I was late, and I hurried on.