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Entry 2 senses · 2 variants Webster, 1913

Birdlime

· Bird·lime · IPA /ˈbɝdlaɪm/
01 n. An extremely adhesive viscid substance, usually made of the middle bark of the holly, by boiling, fermenting, and cleansing it. When a twig…
  1. 1.
    An extremely adhesive viscid substance, usually made of the middle bark of the holly, by boiling, fermenting, and cleansing it. When a twig is smeared with this substance it will hold small birds which may light upon it. Hence: Anything which insnares.
    “Not birdlime or Idean pitch produce A more tenacious mass of clammy juice.” — Dryden.
02 v. t. To smear with birdlime; to catch with birdlime; to insnare.
  1. 1.
    To smear with birdlime; to catch with birdlime; to insnare.
    “When the heart is thus birdlimed, then it cleaves to everything it meets with.” — Coodwin.