WEEPING WILLOW • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Weeping willow

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/wˈipɪŋ wˈɪlˌoʊ/ Listen

noun

Weeping willow n. (Bot.) A tree (Salix babylonica) of the willow family with slender leaves, native to China, whose branches grow very long and slender, and hang down almost perpendicularly. It grows best where soil is moist, as by the banks of streams and is widely cultivated as an ornamental tree.

Synonyms: Babylonian weeping willow.

Willow n.

1.

(Bot.) Any tree or shrub of the genus Salix, including many species, most of which are characterized often used as an emblem of sorrow, desolation, or desertion. "A wreath of willow to show my forsaken plight." Hence, a lover forsaken by, or having lost, the person beloved, is said to wear the willow. "And I must wear the willow garland For him that's dead or false to me."

2.

(Textile Manuf.) A machine in which cotton or wool is opened and cleansed by the action of long spikes projecting from a drum which revolves within a box studded with similar spikes; probably so called from having been originally a cylindrical cage made of willow rods, though some derive the term from winnow, as denoting the winnowing, or cleansing, action of the machine. Called also willy, twilly, twilly devil, and devil.

Almond willow, Pussy willow, Weeping willow. (Bot.) See under Almond, Pussy, and Weeping.

Willow biter (Zool.) the blue tit. (Prov. Eng.)

Willow fly (Zool.), a greenish European stone fly (Chloroperla viridis); called also yellow Sally.

Willow gall (Zool.), a conical, scaly gall produced on willows by the larva of a small dipterous fly (Cecidomyia strobiloides).

Willow grouse (Zool.), the white ptarmigan. See ptarmigan.

Willow lark (Zool.), the sedge warbler. (Prov. Eng.)

Willow ptarmigan (Zool.)

(a)

The European reed bunting, or black-headed bunting. See under Reed.

(b)

A sparrow (Passer salicicolus) native of Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe.

Willow tea, the prepared leaves of a species of willow largely grown in the neighborhood of Shanghai, extensively used by the poorer classes of Chinese as a substitute for tea.

Willow thrush (Zool.), a variety of the veery, or Wilson's thrush. See Veery.

Willow warbler (Zool.), a very small European warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus); called also bee bird, haybird, golden wren, pettychaps, sweet William, Tom Thumb, and willow wren.

See images of 'Weeping willow'

Etymology of 'Weeping willow'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Weeping willow" Quotes from Famous Books

... obvious expectation; while on the borders, in rustic chairs, odd remnants of humanity, mainly oldish, gazed in ecstasy at the picturesque ensemble. In the midst of the lawn was Mrs. Prockter's famous weeping willow, on whose branches Chinese lanterns had been hung by a reluctant gardener, who held to the proper gardener's axiom that lawns are made to be seen and not hurt. The moon aided these lanterns to the best of her power. Under the tree was a cane chair, ...

— Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.) • Arnold Bennett

... flowers, revealing that the dead was not forgotten by those who were left behind. It was easy to divine, and I afterwards learned this to be the case, that it was the mother, Mrs. Curr, who came every morning to pay this tribute of affection to the departed. A weeping willow drooped its supple branches over the tomb; some honey-suckle and sweet-briar surrounded it, loading the air with their rich fragrance; not even the chirping of a bird disturbed the solemn silence that reigned around; everything ...

— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. • J Lort Stokes

... "The weeping willow," as Mr. Ingram remarks, "is one of those natural emblems which bear their florigraphical meaning so palpably impressed that their signification is clear at first sight." This tree has always been regarded as the symbol of sorrow, and also of ...

— The Folk-lore of Plants • T. F. Thiselton-Dyer

... kiss him for his mother, Let me kiss his dear youthful brow; I will love him for his mother, And seek her blessing now. Kind friends have sooth'd his pillow, Have watched his ev'ry care; Beneath the weeping willow, Oh! lay him ...

— Our campaign around Gettysburg • John Lockwood

... mainly youngish, promenaded upon its impeccable surface in obvious expectation; while on the borders, in rustic chairs, odd remnants of humanity, mainly oldish, gazed in ecstasy at the picturesque ensemble. In the midst of the lawn was Mrs. Prockter's famous weeping willow, on whose branches Chinese lanterns had been hung by a reluctant gardener, who held to the proper gardener's axiom that lawns are made to be seen and not hurt. The moon aided these lanterns to the best of her power. Under the tree ...

— Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.) • Arnold Bennett

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