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Birdlime   Listen
noun
Birdlime  n.  An extremely adhesive viscid substance, usually made of the middle bark of the holly, by boiling, fermenting, and cleansing it. When a twig is smeared with this substance it will hold small birds which may light upon it. Hence: Anything which insnares. "Not birdlime or Idean pitch produce A more tenacious mass of clammy juice." Note: Birdlime is also made from mistletoe, elder, etc.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Birdlime" Quotes from Famous Books



... odd miles to Geelong, each stick and stone of which was fast becoming known to Mahony; a journey that remained equally tiresome whether the red earth rose as a thick red dust, or whether as now it had turned to a mud like birdlime in which the wheels sank almost to the axles. Arrived at Geelong they put up at an hotel, where Purdy awaited them. Purdy had tramped down from Tarrangower, blanket on back, and stood in need of a new rig-out from ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson

... undisturbed by the presence of man, lay their eggs and rear their young. Rockal has the appearance, when first seen, of a large ship under sail, and is of a dark gray color, being covered in some parts, probably to the depth of many feet, with birdlime, or guano, the accumulation of ages. But as this rock is exposed to the peltings of the pitiless storms, which are frequent in this part of the world, and is subject to the extremes of heat and cold, it is possible that ...
— Jack in the Forecastle • John Sherburne Sleeper

... Barugh, Adam the Fowler, of Ayton, William Hare and William Fox, catch birds in the forest by means of birdlime-nets and other contrivances." The Clergy were frequently involved in the taking of timber from the forest. "Robert de Hampton, Rector of Middleton, took at different times three green oaks below Cropton Castle, and on a third occasion took there ...
— The Evolution Of An English Town • Gordon Home

... his unpopularity in Ruscino was the inexorable persistence with which he broke their gins, lifted their nets, cleared off their birdlime, dispersed their watertraps, and forbade the favourite night poaching by lanterns in the woods. More than once they threatened his ...
— The Waters of Edera • Louise de la Rame, a.k.a. Ouida



Words linked to "Birdlime" :   scatter, adhesive material, adhesive, spread, adhesive agent



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