wicker

wicker

See also: Wicker

English

Etymology

From Middle English wiker, cognate with Swedish vikker (“willow”), Old Norse veikr (“weak”), English weak.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: wĭkʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪkə(ɹ)
• Homophone: whicker (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
• Homophone: Wicca (in non-rhotic accents)

Noun

wicker (countable and uncountable, plural wickers)

1. A flexible branch or twig of a plant such as willow, used in weaving baskets and furniture.
2. Wickerwork.
   • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, OCLC 1002865976; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, OCLC 987451380:

     Then quick did dress / His half milk up for cheese, and in a press / Of wicker pressed it.

   wicker basket

   wicker cradle

Derived terms

• wickerwork
• rewicker
• wicker man

Translations

flexible branch or twig

Assamese: কামি (kami) Catalan: vímet (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 柳條／柳条 (zh) (liǔtiáo), 篳／筚 (zh) (bì) Czech: virgule (cs) f Finnish: vitsa (fi) French: osier (fr) m Galician: vime m, vimbio m, bringa f, buíño m, guineita f, guimia f, trogallo m, brime m, ódega f German: Weide (de) f Greek: ψάθα (el) f (psátha) Hungarian: vessző (hu), fűzfavessző Italian: vimini Japanese: 小枝 (こえだ, koeda), 籐 (ja) (とう, tō) (esp. attributive) Korean: 고리 (ko) (gori) Ladino: estera f Persian: ترکه‎ (fa) (tarke) Polish: wiklina (pl) f Portuguese: vime (pt) m, verga (pt) f Romanian: nuia (ro) f Russian: прут (ru) m (prut), лоза́ (ru) f (lozá) Spanish: mimbre (es) m

wickerwork — see wickerwork

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

German: (please verify) Flechtwerk (de) n Korean: (please verify) 고리 (ko) (gori) (gori)

See also

• basket
• cradle
• rattan

Adjective

wicker (not comparable)

1. Made of wickerwork.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 7, in Crime out of Mind‎:

     He rose to light my cigarette, then sank back into his wicker chair contentedly. The tea was weak, but not cold, thanks to the hot-plate.

Translations

made of wickerwork

Bulgarian: плетен (bg) (pleten) Hungarian: fonott (hu), vesszőből font Turkish: hasır (tr)

Further reading

• wicker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Middle English

Adjective

wicker

1. comparative degree of wikke