Definition of "osier" []

• Any of several willows having long rodlike twigs used in basketry, especially the Eurasian Salix viminalis and S. purpurea. (noun)
• A twig of one of these trees. (noun)
• Any of various similar or related trees. (noun)

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.

• "The purple osier is already set with green points from which are to emerge fluffy catkins, and the sallow is preparing its gold and silver blossoms which are to be the early palm, dripping with honey and humming with insects."
• "They are small islands planted entirely with willows, and are called osier-holts."
• "On the arrival of the news of his second ejectment, he turned to his wife and said: "Wife, get the creels ready again;" that is, the osier baskets in which he had carried his children in his first remove."