flaxwench (flaks wench)

A woman who spins flax; hence, a common woman. As rank as any flax - wench , that puts to Before her troth-plight. Shak ., W. T., i. 2. Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax . Ex. ix. 31. Long fellow , Wreck of the Hesperus. ( b ) One of several plants of other genera, mostly resembling common flax, as the false or white flax ( Camel in a sativa ), mountain flax ( Polygala Senega ), toadflax ( Linaria vulgar is ), New Zealand flax ( Phormium tenax ), which yields a strong fiber, and spurge-flax ( Daphne Gnidium). Here and there the banks are clothed with a handsome green flag, the precious New Zealand flax [ Phormium te nax ], whose tall, red, honey-laden blo oms, growing on a stem fully ten feet high, offer special attractions to the The Century , XXVII. 920. bees. 2. The whitethroat, Sylvia cinerea: with reference to the material composing its nest. [Local, Eng.]-Flax canvas. (a) Canvas made wholly or chiefly of flax, used in needlework. It is made of many degrees of finene , some of the grades having other materials than linen in their composition. (b) Canvas linen, made from flax, used for sailmaking. Fo il flax. See fo il. Long flax, flax to be spun in its natural length without cutting. E. H. Knight. flax (flaks), v. [ To spit cotton is, I think, American, and also, perhaps, to flax for to beat. Lowell , Biglow Papers, Int. II, in trans. To move quickly; "knock” about: as, to flax round (to move about in a lively or energetic manner). [New Eng. in both uses.] flax-bird (flaks'bėrd), n . A book-name of the scarlet tanager, Piranga rubra . flax-brake (flaks'brāk), n . Same as brake3 , 1. flax-bush (flaks'bush), n . The New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax . See Phormium . flax-comb (flaks'kōm), n. A hatchel or heckle. flax-cotton (flaks'kot"n), n. Cotton i zed flax. See cottonize .