Distaff

//ˈdɪstɑːf// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A device to which a bundle of natural fibres (often wool, flax, or cotton) are attached for temporary storage, before being drawn off gradually to spin thread. A traditional distaff is a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it (as indicated by the etymology of the word), but modern distaffs are often made of cords weighted with beads, and attached to the wrist.

    "Then hadſt thou had an excellent head of haire. […] Excellent, it hangs like flax on a diſtaffe: & I hope to ſee a huſwife take thee between her legs, & ſpin it off."

  2. 2
    the staff on which wool or flax is wound before spinning wordnet
  3. 3
    The part of a spinning wheel from which fibre is drawn to be spun.
  4. 4
    the sphere of work by women wordnet
  5. 5
    Anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only.
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    A race for female horses only.
  2. 7
    A woman, or women considered as a group. also, collective

    "But O, passenger, if thou art desirous to know the cause of these fatal discomposures, of this inextricable war, truly I must deal plainly: I cannot resolve thee herein to any full satisfaction. Grievances there were, I must confess, and some incongruities in my civil government, (wherein, some say, the crozier, some say, the distaff was too busy,) but I little thought, God knows, that those grievances required a redress this way."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, relating to, or characteristic of women. not-comparable

    "Henry knew. If he were blackballed by this distaff Mafia, he was doomed: Endless, but always justifiable, delays would occur in the work he wanted typed."

  2. 2
    Of the maternal side of a family. not-comparable

    "Lord Robert Walsingham de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral— […] They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on the distaff side."

Adjective
  1. 1
    characteristic of or peculiar to a woman wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
arboraxisdamedonnadowagerfemale

Example

More examples

"The King, to avoid the misfortune foretold by the old fairy, issued orders forbidding any one, on pain of death, to spin with a distaff and spindle, or to have a spindle in his house."

Etymology

From Middle English distaf (“distaff”), from Old English distæf (“distaff”), from *dis- (“bunch of flax”) (cognate with Middle Low German dise (“bunch of flax on a distaff”)) + stæf (“staff”) (from Proto-Germanic *stabaz (“staff, stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ-). Senses 3 and 5 (“anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only”; “a woman, or women considered as a group”) refer to the fact that spinning was traditionally done by women.

Related phrases

Distaff Daydistaff sidespinning wheel

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.