[f. WICKER sb. + WORK sb.] Work consisting of wickers; a structure of flexible twigs, osiers, or the like plaited together; basket-work.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 252. We fell to work to make more Wicker Work.
1780. Cowper, A Fable, 3. A raven … on her wicker-work high mounted Her chickens prematurely counted.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, xiv. II. 214. The houses of Sardis were chiefly of wicker-work.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, ii. Every plank and timber creaked, as if the ship were made of wicker-work.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 622. Those rude coracles of wickerwork covered with the skins of horses, in which the Celtic peasantry fished for trout and salmon.
attrib. 1846. Sharpe, Hist. Egypt, xi. 376. Ceylon … had often been reached from Africa … in wickerwork boats made of papyrus.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), xiii. 305. A house with open wickerwork sides.
Hence Wickerworked a., made of or inclosed in wickerwork; Wickerworker, one who makes wickerwork.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 80. Basket maker…. Wicker Worker.
1900. ‘H. Lawson,’ Over Sliprails, 66. They strung out and started for the Antarctic Ocean, with a big old wicker-worked demijohn in the lead.
