osier, n. (a.)
(ˈəʊʒ(ɪ)ə(r), ˈəʊzɪə(r))
Forms: 4 oyser, 5 osere, osyar, osyer(e, osyȝer, ozyer, 6 oszer, 6–7 osiar(e, oysier, oziar, 6– ozier, osier. β. dial. 6 asheer, ausher, 7 awshyor.
[a. F. osier (13th c. in Littré); app. related to 9th c. L. ausāria, osāria ‘willow-bed’ (in Polyptique of Irminon), of which the Fr. repr. would be osière.]
1. A species of willow (Salix viminalis), the tough pliant branches of which are especially used in basket-work; also applied to other species used for the same purpose, notably the golden, purple, and violet willow; one of the shoots of a willow.
| 13.. K. Alis. 6186 Heo buth y-mad of oysers, Y fynde, And y-bounde al with tren rynde. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 22019 The smale osyers, here and ȝonder, To-brake thanne, and wente asonder. 1427 in Amherst Gardening in Eng. (1895) 14 [For faggots..Astill and] ozyerys. 1486 Nottingham Rec. III. 241 For a lode of osyars. 1574 R. Scot Hop Gard. (1578) 40 Euery yeare after you must cut them..as you see an Osiers head cut. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xix. 204 Who will make a staff of an osier? 1660 H. Bloome Archit. C b, That Basket of Osiares. 1718 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Mrs. Thistlethwayte 25 Sept., We began to ascend Mount Cenis..carried in little seats of twisted osiers, fixed upon poles upon men's shoulders. 1832 Lytton Eugene A. i. i, A brook, fringed with ozier and dwarf and fantastic pollards. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. 276 The poplars and osiers of the marshy level. |
| β 1572 Nottingham Rec. IV. 144 The aushers by Wylford Pastore. 1624 Ibid. 390 The cvtting vp of the awshyors. |
2. attrib. or adj. Of, belonging to, or made of osiers; covered with osiers.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. lxiv. 629 The stalkes..wil twist and winde lyke Ozier withie. 1653 Walton Angler xi. 211 If the Sun's excessive heat Makes our bodies swelter, To an Osier hedge we get For a friendly shelter. 1725 Pope Odyss. ix. 507 These, three and three, with osier bands we ty'd. c 1750 Shenstone Elegies viii. 18 On list'ning Cherwell's osier banks reclin'd. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho i, With a small osier basket to receive plants. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 51 His beaming lance and osier shield. |
† b. fig. Osier-like, pliable, pliant.
Obs.| a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 571 Topical and osier accidents, liable to be bent on either side. |
3. Comb., as
osier-tree,
osier-willow;
osier-bordered,
osier-fringed,
osier-woven adjs.;
osier-ait,
-isle, a small islet in a river overgrown with osiers;
osier-bed,
-holt, a place where osiers are grown for basket-making;
osier-odoured a., smelling of osiers;
osier-peeler, a machine for stripping the bark from willow-wands;
osier-wattled, wattled or interwoven with osiers.
| 1767 G. White Selborne 4 Nov., They roosted every night in the *osier-beds. |
| 1725 Pope Odyss. xiv. 533 We made the *osier-fringed bank our bed. |
| 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxix. (1794) 454 Several species are commonly cultivated in *Osier-holts. |
| 1728–46 Thomson Spring 780 The stately-sailing swan..Bears forward fierce, and guards his *osier-isle. 1862 G. Meredith Mod. Love ad fin., We saw the swallows gathering in the sky, And in the osier-isle we heard their noise. |
| a 1881 Rossetti House of Life xii, An *osier-odoured stream. |
| 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 57 The oliue, the popil, & the *oszer tree. |
| a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. xlv. 365 An *Osier Watled Wicker-Bottle. |
| 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 85 Beds of *osier-willow for the purpose of basket-making. |
| 1777 Warton Odes, Compl. Cherwell i, All pensive from her *osier-woven bow'r Cherwell arose. |