flax-stick
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Alternative forms
- flax stick
Noun
flax-stick (plural flax-sticks)
- (New Zealand) The flowering stem of the New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax or Phormium cookianum).
- 1869, W. Lauder Lindsay, On the Economical Value and Applications of the Leaf-Fibre of New Zealnd Flax (Phormium tenax, Forst.), The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, Volume 7, page 46,
- Rafts, or canoes, or “catamarans,” are still occasionally improvised by travellers or explorers in primitive parts of New Zealand, e.g. by Haast, who reports constructing “catamarans” of dead trees when flax-sticks were not obtainable.
- 1869, W. Lauder Lindsay, On the Economical Value and Applications of the Leaf-Fibre of New Zealnd Flax (Phormium tenax, Forst.), The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, Volume 7, page 46,
- (Australia, slang, obsolete) A New Zealander.
- 1896, Henry Lawson, His Country – After All, in While the Billy Boils, Gutenberg eBook #7144
- “I always thought Australia was all good country,” mused the driver—a flax-stick.
- 1896, Henry Lawson, His Country – After All, in While the Billy Boils, Gutenberg eBook #7144