Distaff
['dɪstɑːf]
Definition
(noun.) the staff on which wool or flax is wound before spinning.
(noun.) the sphere of work by women.
Editor: Vito--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The staff for holding a bunch of flax, tow, or wool, from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand.
(n.) Used as a symbol of the holder of a distaff; hence, a woman; women, collectively.
Typed by Brian
Definition
n. the stick which holds the bunch of flax tow or wool in spinning.—Distaff side the female part of a family.
Checked by Flossie
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of a distaff, denotes frugality, with pleasant surroundings. It also signifies that a devotional spirit will be cultivated by you.
Edited by Clare
Examples
- In spinning fine numbers of yarn, a workman in a self-acting mule will do the work of 3,000 hand-spinners with the distaff and spindle. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- Hercules holding the distaff was but a faint type of Peter bearing the roses. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Another story says that he came to hold the distaff, and at last wore the Nessus shirt. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- The Distaff and the Spindle, without a Change from Ancient Days to Middle of Fourteenth Century. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- May the evil demon Zernebock tear me limb from limb, if I leave my own cell ere I have spun out the hemp on my distaff! Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on the distaff side. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Typist: Ralph