palm-leaf
(ˈpɑːmliːf)
a. A leaf of the palm-tree, used for thatching, or for making hats, baskets, etc., and esp., in the Southern U.S., as a fan.
| 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 58 All the houses..are covered with palm-leaves. 1802 Southey Thalaba iii. xxiii, Knitting light palm-leaves for her brother's brow. 1871 Kingsley At Last x, A small sugar-press..under a roof of palm-leaf. |
b. Short for
palm-leaf hat.
| 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. viii, Sam soon appeared, palm-leaf in hand, at the parlour door. 1854 M. J. Holmes Tempest & Sunshine 15 So mounting Prince again, he gave his old palm-leaf three flourishes round his head. |
c. attrib. Made of a palm-leaf or palm-leaves.
palm-leaf book,
palm-leaf fan,
palm-leaf hat,
palm-leaf manuscript,
palm-leaf roof;
palm-leaf pattern, a device resembling a palm-leaf used in the decoration of oriental carpets.
| 1937 M. Covarrubias Island of Bali (1972) i. 7 The second half of the manuscript [of the Tjatur Yoga] is extremely obscure, full of errors, and appears incomplete, perhaps owing to careless copying of an older palm-leaf book. |
| 1860 J. G. Holland Miss Gilbert's Career viii. 132 Then Mrs. Ruggles helped herself to a palm-leaf fan. 1891 Century Mag. Mar. 734 Chad substituted a palm-leaf fan from the hall table. |
| 1836 O. W. Holmes September Gale 156 The wind whisked off my palm-leaf hat. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 34/1, I saw them first at their work (basket-making, and the manufacture of palm-leaf hats). 1948 D. Diringer Alphabet vi. 360 Many palm-leaf manuscripts..are also written in this [Nagari] script. |
| 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 427 Above all is a roof of palm-leaf mats, in good old Coast style. |
| 1931 A. U. Dilley Oriental Rugs & Carpets Pl. 28 (caption) Saraband Rug. Palm Leaf Pattern. |
| 1930 R. Macaulay Staying with Relations ix. 119 They..went to find her, but found nothing except wrecked posts and a smashed palm leaf roof sprawling on the shaken earth. |