different between wattle vs swattle

English

Etymology

From Middle English wattel, watel, from Old English watel, watul (“hurdle”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, wind, bend”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?t?l/
• (US) enPR: wät??l, IPA^(key): /?w?t?l/, [?w?.?l?]
• Rhymes: -?t?l
• Homophone: what'll (in some accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

wattle (countable and uncountable, plural wattles)

1. A construction of branches and twigs woven together to form a wall, barrier, fence, or roof.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Holy Grail

     And there he built with wattles from the marsh / A little lonely church in days of yore.

2. A single twig or rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.
3. A wrinkled fold of skin, sometimes brightly coloured, hanging from the neck of birds (such as chicken and turkey) and some lizards.
4. A barbel of a fish.
5. A decorative fleshy appendage on the neck of a goat.
6. Loose hanging skin in the neck of a person.
7. Any of several Australian trees and shrubs of the genus Acacia, or their bark, used in tanning.

Coordinate terms

• (skin on head of birds): caruncle, comb, cockscomb, crest, snood

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

wattle (third-person singular simple present wattles, present participle wattling, simple past and past participle wattled)

1. (transitive) To construct a wattle, or make a construction of wattles.
2. (transitive) To bind with wattles or twigs.

Further reading

• wattle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Verb

swattle (third-person singular simple present swattles, present participle swattling, simple past and past participle swattled)

1. (Britain, Northern dialect) To splutter; to guzzle.
2. (Britain, transitive) To fritter away.

Synonyms

• (fritter away): swatter

See also

• swaddle

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989

Anagrams

• wattles