- a stick that was used in the past for holding wool when it was spun by hand
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- (in noun compounds) female or relating to women
- ‘Thelma and Louise’ was a distaff buddy movie with a strong feminist agenda.
Word OriginOld English distæf: the first element is apparently related to Middle Low German dise, disene ‘distaff, bunch of flax’; the second is staff. The sense ‘concerning women’ arose because spinning was traditionally done by women.
Idioms
See distaff in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryon the distaff side
- (old-fashioned) on the woman’s side of the family
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distaff