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Rattan   /rætˈæn/   Listen
Rattan

noun
(Written also ratan)
1.
Climbing palm of Sri Lanka and southern India remarkable for the great length of the stems which are used for malacca canes.  Synonyms: Calamus rotang, rattan palm.
2.
The stem of various climbing palms of the genus Calamus and related genera used to make wickerwork and furniture and canes.  Synonym: rattan cane.
3.
A switch made from the stems of the rattan palms.  Synonym: ratan.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Rattan" Quotes from Famous Books



... old man said he must go home. Then the sparrow brought out two baskets made of plaited rattan, such as are used in traveling and carried on men's shoulders. Placing them before their guest, the sparrow said, "Please ...
— Japanese Fairy World - Stories from the Wonder-Lore of Japan • William Elliot Griffis

... could gather it, as the white man contracted the jungle fever as soon as he subjected himself to the climate in which it grew. But within the last fifty or seventy-five years enterprising men have begun the cultivation of the rattan palm, and have met with so much success that now there are a number of factories in the United States making the reed and rattan of commerce, while Germany and Belgium export to us the best reed ...
— Construction Work for Rural and Elementary Schools • Virginia McGaw

... a ship of war was sent from thence, with about three hundred soldiers, to the small island of Rattan in the bay of Honduras, of which they took possession. In September, Vernon and Wentworth received orders to return to England with such troops as remained alive; these did not amount to a tenth part of the number which had been sent abroad in that inglorious service. The inferior ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... as the tides were low, the Frenchman and the head men made rafts of bamboos and timber, and floating them on the wreck they took thick ropes of rattan, and divers went down and lashed the ends thereof to the cross-beams under the decks. Then when this was done more bamboos were added to the rafts above, and as the tide flowed the rattan ropes stood up like iron bars. For two days the people worked at this, and yet the decks kept firm, ...
— Rodman The Boatsteerer And Other Stories - 1898 • Louis Becke

... fondling and playing with it, and showing off its physique and intelligence. To judge from appearances, the children form the chief topic at this morning gathering. At night, after the houses are shut up, looking through the long fringe of rope or rattan which conceals the sliding door, you see the father, who wears nothing but a maro in "the bosom of his family," bending his ugly, kindly face over a gentle-looking baby, and the mother, who more often than not ...
— Unbeaten Tracks in Japan • Isabella L. Bird

... exclaimed against an attempt so full of hazard, but in vain. They offered him arms, a sword and pistols, but he refused them, and said that he had no fear, and, in case of danger, arms would do him no service; and alone, with only a little rattan, which was his usual walking stick, he advanced into the hall to hold parley with the selected, congregated, and enraged villains of ...
— McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... perverse, self-willed, capricious little puss. She's been too much indulged. She needs to be brought under discipline," said Gerald, angrily whipping off a blossom with his rattan as ...
— A Romance of the Republic • Lydia Maria Francis Child

... of incentive.] The oars used in the Philippines are usually made of bamboo poles, with a board tied to their extremities with strips of rattan. If they happen to break, so much the better; for the fatiguing labor of rowing must necessarily be suspended ...
— The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes • Fedor Jagor; Tomas de Comyn; Chas. Wilkes; Rudolf Virchow.

... again the Malay; then, giving a shrill whistle and waving his rattan of office, the gang around the mainmast roused up, and followed him to their bunks below as obediently as a flock of ...
— The Penang Pirate - and, The Lost Pinnace • John Conroy Hutcheson

... superintendent and his assistants, who, with a dexterity that showed them well acquainted with such emergencies, clapped a straight-waistcoat upon each of the antagonists. Richard's efforts at remonstrance only procured him a blow from Captain Seelencooper's rattan, and a tender admonition to hold his tongue, if ...
— The Surgeon's Daughter • Sir Walter Scott

... was no glint of laughter. What he was about to say, what terrible castigation he was going to give me, I never knew; for at that moment a man, passing along the sidewalk, stopped and glanced in at us. He was a large man, poorly dressed, and on his back was a great load of rattan and bamboo stands, chairs, and screens. He looked at the house as if debating whether or not he should come in and try to sell some of ...
— The Iron Heel • Jack London

... and girls in manual labour. At the present time there seems to be a growing tendency to magnify this department of work. These schools are given to training in carpentry, blacksmithing, weaving, brass-work, rattan-work, etc. The Germans have entered more fully into this effort than any other missions in India. But they are not loud in its praise as a department of mission work. It certainly has both merits and demerits which we ...
— India's Problem Krishna or Christ • John P. Jones

... impressed by the amount of room available for passengers. The seating arrangements are similar to the elevated cars, but the subway coaches are longer and wider than the Manhattan, and there are two additional seats on each end. The seats are all finished in rattan. Stationary crosswise seats are provided after the Manhattan pattern, at the center of the car. The longitudinal seats are 17-3/4 inches deep. The space between the longitudinal seats is ...
— The New York Subway - Its Construction and Equipment • Anonymous

... his voice sound more loudly—and though his hair was quite grey his voice was not unpleasing—and sang a few phrases full of expression and with artistic delivery; and then, when the dogs barked too vehemently, he would spring up, and with his lute in his left-hand and a long pliable rattan in his right, he would rush into the court-yard, shout the names of the dogs, and raise his cane as if he would kill them; but he always took care not to hit them, only to beat on the pavement near them. When, returning from such an excursion, ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... blessing here below! I did not know myself why I liked so much to loiter behind with her when returning in the evening from our labors; why the tones of her voice made my heartstrings thrill like an AEolian harp; and particularly, why my pulse beat such a furious rattan, when I looked and fingered over her little hand to pick out the cruel nettle-stings and thistles. Thus with me began love and poetry, which at times have been my only, and till within the last twelve months, have been my ...
— Home Life of Great Authors • Hattie Tyng Griswold

... these days to smite with the rattan as did the mighty of yore. The custom certainly lived a long time. The author of the Proverbs spoke of the practise to the parents of his generation, and there is no mistaking the meaning of his words. He spoke with authority, too; if we mistake not, it was the Holy ...
— Explanation of Catholic Morals - A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals • John H. Stapleton

... feet in girth also occur, screw-pines 50 feet in height with immense crowns of grassy leaves 4 feet long, palms of many kinds, rattan-canes, bamboos, plantains, and tall grasses such as only grow in dense, hot jungles. Gigantic climbers tackle the loftiest trees. One allied to the gourd bears immense yellowish-white pendulous blossoms; another bears curious ...
— The Heart of Nature - or, The Quest for Natural Beauty • Francis Younghusband

... excite, anger. Ramfeezl'd, exhausted. Ramgunshoch, surly. Ram-stam, headlong. Randie, lawless, obstreperous. Randie, randy, a scoundrel, a rascal. Rant, to rollick, to roister. Rants, merry meetings; rows. Rape, v. raep. Raploch, homespun. Rash, a rush. Rash-buss, a clump of rushes. Rashy, rushy. Rattan, rattoon, a rat. Ratton-key, the rat-quay. Raucle, rough, bitter, sturdy. Raught, reached. Raw, a row. Rax, to stretch, to extend. Ream, cream, foam. Ream, to cream, to foam. Reave, to rob. Rebute, rebuff. Red, advised, afraid. Red, rede, to advise, to counsel. Red-wat-shod, red-wet-shod. Red-wud, ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... fitting in the notches serves as the cutting edge. The leaf is held in one hand and the gauge and knife in the other, the edge of the leaf being drawn through the gauge. This is generally made out of the stiff part of the leaf, though, occasionally, of a piece of rattan, bamboo or leather. At best it serves for only a few hours of use, when it is thrown ...
— Philippine Mats - Philippine Craftsman Reprint Series No. 1 • Hugo H. Miller

... a rattan about forty feet long. At the "business end," as Scott called it, they attached a float to keep it on the top of the water. The steamer just crawled along on the river in order not to disturb the game, though the reptiles were accustomed ...
— Four Young Explorers - Sight-Seeing in the Tropics • Oliver Optic

... opened my store today and nailed up my sine fancy goods and sweatened water H. Shute. Potter and Whack and Fatty and Boog and Puzzy and all the fellers come round and i sold lots of stuff. i charge 10 nails for a sweet firn cigar, 5 nails for a rattan or grape vine cigar and 3 nails for hayseed cornsilk and mullen leaf. 3 nails for white jacobs ladders and 5 for gilt, 10 nails for flyboxes made of writing book paper, and 15 and 20 nails for gilt and silver and ...
— 'Sequil' - Or Things Whitch Aint Finished in the First • Henry A. Shute

... all, so we sent word we were all coming. Mrs. Noble, my neighbor worked all day to make a hoop skirt. She shirred and sewed together a piece of cloth about three yards around. In these shirrings she run rattan—a good heavy piece so it would stand out well. I made a black silk basque and skirt. My finery was all ready to put on. One of the neighbor's girls was to stay with the children. The baby had been quite restless, so ...
— Old Rail Fence Corners - The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History • Various

... various languages, which sometimes have not bestowed on us more than this single one. Thus 'hussar' is Hungarian; 'caloyer', Romaic; 'mammoth', of some Siberian language;{14} 'tattoo', Polynesian; 'steppe', Tartarian; 'sago', 'bamboo', 'rattan', 'ourang outang', are all, I believe, Malay words; 'assegai'{15} 'zebra', 'chimpanzee', 'fetisch', belong to different African dialects; the last, however, having reached Europe through ...
— English Past and Present • Richard Chenevix Trench

... rattan he still carried, and caused a page of painted metal to turn on hinges that were so artfully concealed as not to be visible. A new surface, with ...
— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper

... great abundance upon this Island. They run like Honey-suckles either upon the Ground, or up Trees, as it happens, near Twenty fathom in length. There is a kind of a shell or skin grows over the Rattan, and encloseth it round. Which serves for a Case to cover and defend it, when tender. This Skin is so full of prickles and thorns, that you cannot touch it. As the Rattan growes longer and stronger, this Case growes ripe, and falls off ...
— An Historical Relation Of The Island Ceylon In The East Indies • Robert Knox

... handy. Then, again, there is no bending a hazel without a great chance of breaking it. A good strong ground-ash is not to be despised if cut at the right time, but it is always apt to split or break. Turning to the rattan-cane, we find a capital solid cane—almost unbreakable—but with rather too much bend in it for thrusting, or warding off the rush of a savage dog. The rattan, too, is very apt to split if by any chance the ferrule comes off; and when once it has really split you might just as ...
— Broad-Sword and Single-Stick • R. G. Allanson-Winn

... conventional tradition. Here were no rugs hung from balconies, no rich stuffs and suits of armor. It was simply a cool little place, with a big window overlooking one of the parks. Its walls were tinted gray, and there were a few comfortable rattan chairs, with white linen cushions. A portrait of Delilah dominated the room. He had painted her in the costume which she had worn at the garden party—in all the glory of cool greens and ...
— Contrary Mary • Temple Bailey



Words linked to "Rattan" :   Calamus rotang, cane, switch, malacca, calamus



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