windlestraw

English

Alternative forms

• windlestrae

Etymology

windle +‎ straw

Noun

windlestraw (countable and uncountable, plural windlestraws)

1. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A grass used for making ropes or for plaiting, especially Apera spica-venti.
   • 1816, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alastor:

     Grey rocks did peep from the square moss, and stemmed / The struggling brook: tall spires of windlestrae / Threw their thin shadows down the rugged slope, / And nought but gnarlèd roots of ancient pines, / Branchless and blasted, clenched with grasping roots / The unwilling soil.