thatch

plural thatches

1. countableuncountableStraw, rushes, or similar, used for making or covering the roofs of buildings, or of stacks of hay or grain.

   Just over halfway up, we reached the Human settlement with its houses of stone and wood and thatch. This was a prewar place.

   1989, Octavia E. Butler, “Part III, Chapter 7”, in Imago, page 210

   Synonyms: haulm

2. CaribbeancountableuncountableAny of several kinds of palm, the leaves of which are used for thatching.
3. countableuncountableA buildup of cut grass, stolons or other material on the soil in a lawn.

   Mark Ladd, the venue’s assistant director of operations, notes that the fake greenery looks authentic: the height and colour of the blades are varied, with a few brown ones thrown in to emulate dead thatch.

   2015 May 30, Rob Kuznia, “California turns to fake grass in response to drought”, in The Guardian

4. broadlycountablefigurativelyuncountableAny strawlike material, such as a person's hair.

   An outgoing, story-telling Irishman from Butte, Montana, with his thatch of red hair and sandpapered face, Matt was the quintessential imp.

   2008, Wallace Madding, The Country Club Killings: A Montana Story, page 21

   1 more example

   Brown was a compact dark-skinned man in his forties, with strong features and a dense thatch of brown hair that sprang from his crown at an angle, though it had been brushed to either side of an indeterminate part.

   2008, Harriet A. Washington, “Profitable Wonders”, in Medical Apartheid, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 52

present singular third person thatches · participle present thatching · participle past thatched · past thatched

1. To cover the roof with straw, reed, leaves, etc.

plural Thatches

1. A surname.