English

Noun

windle ‎(plural windles)

1. (Britain, dialect) The redwing.
   • 1908, W. F. Rose, William White, editor, Notes and queries, page 48:

     The modus operandi somewhat recalls the stratagem of Gideon, for the birds—chiefly thrushes, blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings (locally "windles"), and starlings (smaller birds being disregarded)—terrified by the noise, and dazed by the lantern glare, suffered themselves to be taken by the hand, or, if roosting aloft, as was the case on still nights, to be knocked down with the poles which the lads carried.

Translations

Etymology 2

Middle English, from Old English windel ‎(“basket”), from windan ‎(“to wind, twist”).

Noun

windle ‎(plural windles)

1. An old English measure of corn, half a bushel.
   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 208.

     In the Derby household book of 1561, wheat, malt, and oats are sold by the quarter and the windle, in which the quarter clearly contained sixteen windles, and must have been a wholly different measure from that which we are familiar.

2. Dog-tail grass, Plantago lanceolata.
3. Bent grass.

Verb

windle ‎(third-person singular simple present windles, present participle windling, simple past and past participle windled)

1. (transitive) To bind straw into bundles.