noun

woad

WOHD/wəʊd/

A plant whose leaves are used to make blue dye.

Woad grows in our garden, and its leaves provide blue dye.

A recognizable flowering woad plant beside harvested leaves, a simple earthenware dye vessel, and blue-dyed linen, linking the plant itself to its traditional use without adding people.

Etymology

woadOld Englishwoad plant or its blue dye

Old English wad named both the plant and the blue dye extracted from its fermented leaves. The name links the plant with its useful product, but its deeper origin remains uncertain.

In context

The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art61:56

indigo is a dye and I mentioned it comes from the indigo fara plant also commonly called woad and from this you extract the colored liquid

THE ALCHEMY OF PAINTING MEDIUMS AND PIGMENTS - A Lecture Presentation by Laurence Caruana

More examples

She harvests woad leaves to make dye for wool.
The woad produces clusters of small yellow flowers.
They plant woad seeds in rows each spring.

Forms

woad · woads