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The fiber of wool, cotton, flax, or the like; as, a coarse staple; a fine staple; a long or short staple.

A bunch of hackled flax prepared for drawing into slivers. Knight.

An instrument used in dressing flax. [Prov. Eng.]

p.), a plane shorter than a jointer, used for fitting a short joint. Moxon. -- Strike of flax, a handful that may be hackled at once. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Chaucer. -- Strike of sugar. (Sugar Making) (a) The act of emptying the teache, or last boiler, in which the cane juice is exposed to heat, into the coolers. (b) T…

Cloth or flax dipped in warm water or medicaments and applied to a hurt or sore.

The main card cylinder of a flax-carding machine.

To clean, as flax, by beating it with a swingle, so as to separate the coarse parts and the woody substance from it; to scutch.

from Swingle, v. t. Swingling tow, the coarse part of flax, separated from the finer by swingling and hatcheling.

To comb or card, as wool or flax. "Teasing matted wool." Wordsworth.

To beat; to break, as flax or hemp. [Obs.] Mortimer.

A very small twist of flax, wool, cotton, silk, or other fibrous substance, drawn out to considerable length; a compound cord consisting of two or more single yarns doubled, or joined together, and twisted.

The coarse and broken part of flax or hemp, separated from the finer part by the hatchel or swingle.

To ret, or rot, in water, as flax; to water-rot.

To rot by steeping in water; to water-ret; as, to water-rot hemp or flax.

A woven band of cotton or flax, used for reins, girths, bed bottoms, etc.

To open and cleanse, as cotton, flax, or wool, by means of a willow. See Willow, n., 2.

customarily; to perform the part of a laborer; to labor; to toil. They that work in fine flax . . . shall be confounded. Isa. xix. 9.

Spun wool; woolen thread; also, thread of other material, as of cotton, flax, hemp, or silk; material spun and prepared for use in weaving, knitting, manufacturing sewing thread, or the like.