wicker

From Middle English wiker, cognate with Swedish vikker (“willow”), Old Norse veikr (“weak”), English weak.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: wĭkʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪkə(ɹ)
• Homophone: whicker (wine–whine merger)
• Homophone: Wicca (non-rhotic)

wicker (countable and uncountable, plural wickers)

1. A flexible branch or twig of a plant such as willow, used in weaving baskets and furniture.
2. Wickerwork.

   wicker basket

   wicker cradle

   • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:

     Then quick did dress / His half milk up for cheese, and in a press / Of wicker pressed it.

     The spelling has been modernized.

• wickerwork
• rewicker
• wicker man

• basket
• cradle
• rattan

wicker (not comparable)

1. Made of wickerwork.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 7, in Crime out of Mind‎^[1]:

     He rose to light my cigarette, then sank back into his wicker chair contentedly. The tea was weak, but not cold, thanks to the hot-plate.

•   wicker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

wicker

1. comparative degree of wikke