wattling, vbl. n.
(ˈwɒtlɪŋ)
Also 4–7 wattelyng(e, -ing, 4–6 watlyng(e, -ing(e, 6 wadling.
[f. wattle v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb wattle.
| 1573–80 Tusser Husb. (1878) 83 To arbor begun, and quick setted about, no poling nor wadling till set be far out. 1633 T. James Voy. 60 Our second house was..made for the watteling much after the same manner. 1916 Contemp. Rev. July 96 Plaiting, braiding, weaving and wattling, all of which bring into existence very definite rudiments of pattern. |
2. concr. a. An assemblage of rods or laths interlaced with branches, twigs, osiers, or the like, serving as the material of a wattled wall, partition, fence, etc., or as the framework of a ‘wattle-and-daub’ building. Also, in generalized sense, wattle as a structural material.
| 1336 Cal. Docum. Scot. (1887) III. 349 Item pro amputacione xxiiij carcatarum virgarum pro ‘wattelyngs’, et pro cariagio earundem de bosco usque castrum. Ibid. 351 [similarly but] ‘watlyngs’. 1431–40 in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's, Bp.'s Stortford (1882) 8 Et in virgis emptis pro watlyng sprendelles et ligaminibus, xd. ob. c 1468 in Archæologia (1846) XXXI. 336 On every tarage a tree of gold... The tarage before reherssid, wateled w{supt} gold, w{supt}{suph}in the wattelinge abowt the said tre, and every of them fylled w{supt} meatis divers. 1545 Elyot Dict., Crates, grates of yron or wood. They be also the watling of a wall or house klayd or thatched. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. iii. 131 Watlings, gabbions, and all other things needfull, at batteries, and besieging. 1658 in J. Campbell Balmerino (1899) 410 Ane new cupill, cabers, watlings, door-cheeks, half doore. 1699 W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. 115 The side Walls are Stud or Watling, plaister'd on the inside. 1763 Hume Hist. Eng. xxxvii. (1770) IV. 497 The houses [c 1560] were nothing but watling, plastered over with clay. 1837 J. E. Murray Summer in Pyrenees I. 63 A wattling of willow boughs, about eight feet square. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 149 Fig. 66 shows the handle and rim of what is called the Scotch basket... Fig. 67 shows the same skeleton, with..the wattling or woven work commenced. 1909 Stacpoole Pools of Silence xxx, Adams had swung the man aloft and dashed him against the wall with such force, that the wattling gave way and the plaster fell in flakes. |
| † transf. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. xii. (1593) 286 He threw an ashen dart Which brake the watling of his ribs [L. laterum cratem]. |
b. Boughs and twigs for use in wattle-work.
| 1622 F. Markham Bk. War iii. v. 98 To hew downe boughes and young watlings to make Cabins. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xiv. (Roxb.) 19/2 Thatchers Termes...Watlings iusted of Laths. 1763 ‘Theophilus Insulanus’ Second Sight 26 Going..to cut wattling for creels. 1809 tr. Molina's Hist. Chili I. 128 The husbandmen..employ it [a vine] both in making large baskets, and as wattling for their hedges. 1831 J. Porter Sir E. Seaward's Narr. I. x. 295 To cut the stakes and watlings for the stoccado. |
3. Comb.| 14.. Master of Game etc. (MS. Douce 335) fol. 73 Ony smal wode, that is to wete, blatrons, sparres, watlyngroddes, or ony other smal wode. |