Definition of "birdlime" [bird•lime]

• A sticky substance that is smeared on branches or twigs to capture small birds. (noun)
• Something that captures or ensnares. (noun)
• To smear with birdlime. (verb-transitive)
• To catch with or as if with birdlime. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It is asserted by some to possess properties fully equal to those of the I. aquifolium of Europe, the inner bark of which also yields a viscid substance called birdlime; its leaves are esteemed as a diaphoretic in the form of infusion; employed in catarrh, pleurisy, small-pox, etc."
• "The common kind of birdlime readily loses its tenacious quality when long exposed to the air, and particularly when subjected to moisture; but it may be rendered capable of sustaining the action of water by the following"
• "_Lime-twigs_ = snares; in allusion to the practice of catching birds by means of twigs smeared with a viscous substance (called on that account 'birdlime')."