Definitions for distaff

• Definition
• Anagrams (128)

distaff dis·taff

Spelling: [dis-taf, -tahf]

IPA: /ˈdɪs tæf, -tɑf/

Distaff is a 7 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 14 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 14 points.

You can make 128 anagrams from letters in distaff (adffist).

Definitions for distaff

noun

1. a staff with a cleft end for holding wool, flax, etc., from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand.
2. a similar attachment on a spinning wheel.
3. Archaic. a woman or women collectively. women's work.

adjective

1. Sometimes Offensive. noting, pertaining to, characteristic of, or suitable for a female. See also distaff side.

Origin of distaff

before 1000; Middle English distaf, Old English distæf, equivalent to dis- (cognate with Low German diesse bunch of flax on a distaff; cf. dizen) + stæf Examples for distaff

Then Wainamoinen took the pieces of her distaff and set to work.

They may find they have more tow on their distaff than they know how to spin.

As Maggie in a 1990 production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof she was more than just a slip of distaff Mississippi flesh.

The door was open, and he saw a girl at work with her distaff.

Indeed, the distaff vote may yet again break Republican this cycle—as it did in 2010—if the polls are to be believed.

This distaff, which I have taken at random, decides the fate of all who are born while I am spinning it.

She answered the third without hesitation, that it was a distaff.

What followed the distaff and spindle in the development of spinning?

The improvement on the distaff and spindle was the spinning wheel.

Thus are they represented on a medal, each with a distaff in her hand.