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The staff on which wool or flax is wound before spinning
Answer for the clue "The staff on which wool or flax is wound before spinning ", 7 letters:
distaff
Alternative clues for the word distaff
Word definitions for distaff in dictionaries
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Distaff \Dis"taff\, n.; pl. Distaffs , rarely Distaves . [OE. distaf, dysestafe, AS. distaef; cf. LG. diesse the bunch of flax on a distaff, and E. dizen. See Staff .] The staff for holding a bunch of flax, tow, or wool, from which the thread is drawn in ...
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Old English distæf "stick that holds flax for spinning," from dis- "bunch of flax" (cognates: Middle Low German dise , Low German diesse "a bunch of flax on a distaff;" see bedizen ) + stæf "stick, staff" (see staff ).\n \n A synonym in English for "the ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
adj. characteristic of or peculiar to a woman; "female sensitiveness"; "female suffrage" [syn: female ] n. the sphere of work by women the staff on which wool or flax is wound before spinning
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
a. 1 of, relating to, or characteristic of women 2 referring to the maternal side of a family n. 1 a device to which a bundle of natural fibres (often wool, flax, or cotton) are attached for temporary storage, before being drawn off gradually to spin thread. ...
Usage examples of distaff.
Mother Binning had been working in the garden, but when she saw the figures on the path below she took her distaff and sat on the bench in the sun.
Then Coyle he of the weak bladder and suspicious discharge gets excused to go back into the eastern tree-line out of sight of the distaffs and pee, so the other three get a minute to jog over to the pavilion and stand with their hands on their hips and breathe and drink Gator-ade out of little conic paper cups you can't put down til they're empty.
Women fetched water, cooked over fires or in crude clay ovens, kneaded bread dough in wooden troughs, tended the swarming children, gossiped as they spun thread on their distaffs or sat to weave on broad looms with stone-weighted warps set under leather awnings.
The women in Ynys Wydryn all carried distaffs and spindles on which they wound the newly sheared wool and only the Queen, Morgan and Nimue were spared that unending task.
The other spearmen crowded in behind their leaders, while at my back the women pressed closer and some of them put aside their ever-present distaffs and spindles to begin throwing stones to drive me forward on to Griffid's spear.
Kindly and repeatedly was he welcomed by the venerable old dame, the mistress of the family, who, dressed in her coif and pinners, her close and decent gown of homespun wool, but with a large gold necklace and ear-rings, looked, what she really was, the lady as well as the farmer's wife, while, seated in her chair of wicker, by the corner of the great chimney, she directed the evening occupations of the young women, and of two or three stout serving wenches, who sate plying their distaffs behind the backs of their young mistresses.
Having regard to the period, and to the alchemistic nature of the goods that composed so much of Anne's stock-in-trade at the sign of the Golden Distaff, in Paternoster Row, it may be conjectured that the love-lorn Frances had thoughts of a philtre.
Athena flew off the handle and whacked Arachne with her distaff, which might seem kind of like poor anger management until you consider that during the struggle against the Giants, she wasted Enceladus by dropping Sicily on him!
It would be false to argue that she had the best of both worlds (male and female), for only Guinevere and Emily on the distaff side ever treated her with affection.
A spinster is a dried-up old maid in a mob-cap, sitting in the chimney corner winding flax on a distaff.
Even the Duke Leto, a cousin on the distaff side, never knew for sure.
It was obvious that Carolyn McCoy-Grunders, the woman from WAACO, was stirring up the distaff side of the community.
Which, in the case of my soldiers, is usually not more than two, and those on the distaff side.
They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on the distaff side.
Still young and with carbon black ringlets above the sharp dark eyes, a leopard skin coat and knee boots, where was the whip, her forebears on the distaff side a-whoring for the Goths.