rattan

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Any of several species of climbing palm of the genus Calamus.
2. (uncountable)The plant used as a material for making furniture, baskets etc.

   “Then, how comparatively sweet was everything on board - no paint, no tar, no new rope, (vilest of smells to the qualmish!) no grease, or oil, or varnish; but instead of these, bamboo and rattan, and coir rope and palm thatch; pure vegetable fibres, which smell pleasantly if they smell at all, and recall quiet scenes in the green and shady forest.”

   “It took Elwood an hour to find Mr. Gladwell, who sat in a big rattan chair at the edge of the sweet potato fields.”

3. (broadly, countable, uncountable)A cane made from this material.

   “He who first acts as striker asks the other how many blows of the rattan he will bear on his forearm without crying out.”

   ““My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.””

   “[…]the rattan is still a valued instrument of discipline[…]”

verb

1. (transitive)To beat with a rattan cane.

   “Meanwhile Captain Colville rattaned Pearson very severely […]”

name

1. A surname.