Wat"tle (?), n. [AS. watel, watul, watol, hurdle, covering, wattle; cf. OE. watel a bag. Cf. Wallet.]
1.
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.
2.
A rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.
3. Zool. (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.
4. (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.
Wattle turkey. Zool. Same as Brush turkey.
© Webster 1913.
Wat"tle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wattled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Wattling (?).]
1.
To bind with twigs.
2.
To twist or interweave, one with another, as twigs; to form a network with; to plat; as, to wattle branches.
3.
To form, by interweaving or platting twigs.
The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes.
Milton.
© Webster 1913.
Wat"tle (?), n.
1.
Material consisting of wattled twigs, withes, etc., used for walls, fences, and the like. "The pailsade of wattle." Frances Macnab.
2. (Bot.)
In Australasia, any tree of the genus Acacia; -- so called from the wattles, or hurdles, which the early settlers made of the long, pliable branches or of the split stems of the slender species.
© Webster 1913